Evaluation of the Education Quality

Improvement Through Pedagogy

(EQUIP) Project in Shinyanga,
Tanzania

Full Report

Oxfam GB Programme Evaluation

December 2008

Commissioned by: Oxfam GB

Evaluators: Upali M. Sedere, Helima Mengele,
Teferi Kajela
 CONTENTS

A. TABLES AND FIGURES............................................................... 4

Tables:......................................................................................................................................... 4
Figures: ....................................................................................................................................... 4

B. ACRONYMS .................................................................................. 5

C. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................... 6

D. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................... 10
The Relevance Of The Project.................................................................................................. 12
Capacity Building for In-Service Training and Mentoring:......................................................... 12

E. METHODOLOGY......................................................................... 13
Review of Documents: .............................................................................................................. 13
Consultations with Key Actors:.................................................................................................. 13
Visits to Schools and TRCs:...................................................................................................... 13
Sampling: .................................................................................................................................. 13
Questionnaire, Semi Structured Interviews/Focus Group Discussions: ................................... 14

F. ASSESSMENT OF EQUIP ACTIVITIES AND IMPACT .............. 16

Training Of Teachers & Key Personnel ................................................................. 16

Assessment of Training.................................................................................................. 18
I. Estimated Coverage of Teacher Training .............................................................................. 18
II. Child Centred Learning: ....................................................................................................... 19
III. Pool of Trainers and In-service Training Culture: ................................................................ 19
IV. Teachers Training and Use of Pedagogy: ........................................................................... 20
V. Mentors and Mentoring:........................................................................................................ 22
VI. Head teachers Training:...................................................................................................... 23
VII. Teacher Resource Centres:................................................................................................ 23
VIII. School libraries: ................................................................................................................. 24
IX. Training of School Committees:........................................................................................... 24
X. Crosscutting Issues: HIV/AIDS and Gender:........................................................................ 25
XI. Networking and M&E: .......................................................................................................... 25

Results and Impact of Training and Related Activities ................................ 27

EQUIPs Impact on National Examination Results and Learning

Outcomes ................................................................................................................................ 29
How Shinyanga District Results Fare Vis--vis Regional and National Averages (STD VII 2003-
7) ............................................................................................................................................... 29
How the Six Better Performing EQUIP Schools Fared in Exam Results (2003-7) ................... 31
Increasing Gender Disparities in Achievement for PSLEs........................................................ 33

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 Grade Four Pass Rate Progress............................................................................................... 33
Transition to Secondary Education ........................................................................................... 35
Internal Efficiency of EQUIP Schools........................................................................................ 36

Key Observations and Recommendations .......................................................... 38

Greater focus on desired outcomes, rather than on outputs: ................................................... 38
Greater Micro-level Planning around Change Management: ................................................... 39
Stronger Monitoring & Evaluation System Needed:.................................................................. 40
Different Phased Implementation Strategy next time:............................................................... 41
Better Staff Deployment: ........................................................................................................... 41
Bringing Parents More Into the Process: .................................................................................. 42
Improve Classroom Settings: .................................................................................................... 42
Too Early to Exit: ....................................................................................................................... 45

G. ASSESSMENT OF EQUIPS IN-SERVICE TRAINING MODEL

AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO QUALITY EDUCATION IN
TANZANIA ....................................................................................... 46
In-Service Training System: ...................................................................................................... 46

Recommendations for Improvements of EQUIP In-Service Training

Model ......................................................................................................................................... 47
Up-grading TRC and Placing TRCs Above the Schools:.......................................................... 48
Head of TRC: ............................................................................................................................ 48
TTC And Primary Teacher Training: ......................................................................................... 48
TTC and Training Curriculum:................................................................................................... 49
Mentors Network: ...................................................................................................................... 49
Subject Facilitators: ................................................................................................................... 49
Head teachers Training and Micro Management of Schools: .................................................. 50
The Ward Education Coordinator:............................................................................................. 50
Micro and Macro Level M&E Units:........................................................................................... 50

Proposed Improved Career-Path for Primary Teachers: ............................. 50

Establishing a System of Credit for Training:............................................................................ 52

H. SUSTAINABILITY AND INSTITUTIONALISATION OF EQUIP . 52

Sustainability ............................................................................................................................. 52
Institutionalisation and Exit Strategy ......................................................................................... 54

I. BEST PRACTICES OF EQUIP ..................................................... 57

J. ANNEXES .................................................................................... 59
Annex A: The Terms of Reference For the Final Evaluation of the EQUIP Programme .......... 60
Annex B: Documents Reviewed by the Evaluation Team......................................................... 70
Annex C: The List Of Persons Who Participated in the Evaluation .......................................... 72
Annex D: Questionnaire/Interview Format for Teachers........................................................... 73
Annex E: Up-dated Reporting on Revised Log Frame Indicators............................................ 76

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 A. TABLES AND FIGURES
Tables:
Page

Table 1 The Distribution of Selected Schools Over Rural and Municipal School
Clusters 12
Table 2 Targeted Number And the Number Trained 14
Table 3 The Number of Teachers Received Foundation Training 15
Table 4 PSLE Pass Rates of the Six Better Performing EQUIP Schools in
Shinyanga Districts 27
Table 5 Average Grade 4 Passing Rates of Six Best EQUIP Schools
Against the National Average 30
Table 6 Grade 4 Passing Rates of 11 EQUIP Schools 30
Table 7 Secondary School Selections Against The Number Registered In
Grade Seven In Shinyanga Districts And Region From 2003 2007 32
Table 8 Rate of Enrolment at Secondary of EQUIP Schools 32
Table 9 Internal Efficiency of the Best Six EQUIP Schools (2003 2007) 33

Figures:

Figure 1 Estimated Number of Teachers Received All Four Types of Trainings 16

Figure 2
District-wise Passing Rates of Grade Seven Examination in Shinyanga
Region from Year 2003 2007 26
Figure 3
Progression Increase of Grade Seven Pass Rates in EQUIP Project Areas
Against Shinyanga Regional Average and National Average 26
Figure 4
The Best Six EQUIP Schools Grade Seven Pass Rates 28
Figure 5
Best Six EQUIP Schools PSLE (Girls) Pass Rates 2003 2007 28
Figure 6
Gender-wise Grade Seven Examination Passing Rates of Shinyanga
Rural Districts from Year 2003 2007 29
Figure 7 Gender-wise Passing Rates of Grade Seven Examination in Shinyanga
Municipality Schools From Year 2003 2007 29
Figure 8
Grade Four Passing Rates of Best Six EQUIP Schools Against
The National Average 31
Figure 9 Secondary School Selections against the Number Registered In Grade
Seven
In Shinyanga Districts and Region from 2003 2007 32
Figure 10 Socioeconomic Inequalities in Classroom Seating In Two Better Performing
Rural EQUIP Schools 39
Figure 11 In-Service Training System of EQUIP 42
Figure 12 A Proposals for an In-Service Training System 46
Figure 13 Possible Career Path For Primary Teachers 47

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 B. ACRONYMS
BEST Basic Education Statistics in Tanzania
CSO Civil Society Organisations
EC European Commission
EFA Education For All
EQUIP Education Quality Improvement through Pedagogy
FGD Focus Group Discussions
INSET In-service Teacher Training
M&E Monitoring & Evaluation
MOEVT Ministry of Education and Vocational Training
PEDP Primary Education Development Programme
PSLE Primary School Leaving Examination
SDC School Development Committees
SEN Shinyanga Teachers Network
TDMS Teachers Development Management Strategy
TEN/MET Tanzania Education Network
TLM Teaching And Learning Materials
TOR Terms of Reference
TOT Trainer Of Trainers
TRC Teacher Resource Centres
TTC Teacher Training College
TTISSA Teacher Training in Sub-Saharan Africa
TTU Teachers Trade Union

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 C. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The five-year Education Through Quality Improvement Through Pedagogy (EQUIP)
project has been jointly implemented by the Shinyanga District Authorities, and
OXFAM GB, with co-financing support from the European Commission since 2003.
In view of the international Education For All (EFA) framework, and the Tanzanian
Governments Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP), EQUIP is a
highly relevant pilot project to demonstrate quality primary education provision on a
district scale.

EQUIP aims to improve classroom practices and learning through child centred
pedagogy, and to develop a system of empowering and developing teachers and
children. EQUIP has been supporting 172 primary schools, around 1750 teachers,
and over 100,000 students. This project has proven to be a learning exercise in
practical strategies for improving the education system, not only in Shinyanga, but
also in the whole of Tanzania.

The project concentrated on:

(A) Training of teachers and education sector actors to practice child- centred
pedagogy in the classroom;
(B) Establishing an In-service Teacher Training System for the professional
development of teachers, including a school- based teacher mentoring and support
system.

The project has almost completed its first five-year cycle (2003 2008) and has
successfully delivered all the planned training activities, for example for 170
Trainers, 1587 teachers, 172 Head teachers, 332 school-based mentors, 688 school
committee members, and other education officials. However, due to the fact that the
project followed a phased-approach, only 51 schools of the 172 schools have
received a full five-year course of intervention from EQUIP.

Most notably, EQUIP has managed to bring about a significant improvement in 15

20 schools where the full course of the EQUIP intervention had been provided. The
ability to demonstrate quality child- centred education in 15 20 schools is a
noteworthy achievement for EQUIP in a five year span. It would be unrealistic to
expect a project to bring this degree of change in all schools.

The evaluation clearly recognises the positive contribution EQUIP has made to
demonstrate child-centred pedagogy to all the other schools, Head teachers,
teachers, educators and policy makers. Teachers and students have developed
more of a mutual understanding. Students are more motivated to learn and to
participate in school. Students themselves indicated that there is more cooperative
learning in schools. Teachers now come regularly and are student-friendly. Teachers
also ask more questions to involve their students, and correct their workbooks.
Corporal punishment has also significantly decreased within schools.

Although EQUIPs main intervention was teacher training, the project has worked to
create a better teaching and learning environment and improved learning resources.

6
EQUIP has provided books to schools, and constructed and renovated Teacher
Resource Centres (TRCs) and libraries. It has also trained teachers to make their
own Teaching Learning Materials (TLM) together with their students.

Moreover, EQUIP has supported good school governance by training and mobilising
School Committees, Head teachers, Ward Education Coordinators; created a pool of
professional mentors; promoted school pupil clubs; and established the Teachers
Network and the Shinyanga Education Network (SEN). EQUIP in also worked with
school community to raise awareness on the importance of educating children,
HIV/AIDS and gender issues; addressed water and sanitation issues by constructing
rainwater harvesting tanks and community shallow and deep wells in some schools;
and implemented a successful school feeding programme during a period of severe
drought in 2006.

The schools that received most of these elements of the full EQUIP model or
package, and where interventions to bring school committees and village
governments to work in closer cooperation demonstrated the best school
environments, and the students were the most assertive. School learning
environments have improved, the teachers are more motivated, and the learners
behaviours have also certainly improved. However, the schools with better and
committed Head teachers have benefited more while the schools with weaker Head
teachers have not taken the advantage of such trainings given to school committees.
Head teacher and school committee training are areas that could have been further
strengthened, especially as Head teachers are often the most critical factor for the
success of schools and could have been used as catalysts to bring about child-
centred learning.

Even within the context of great national progress as a result of the Governments
Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP), the progress of the Shinyanga
Municipal and Rural District Councils between 2003 and 2007 in national STD IV
and STD VII examinations have also been remarkable. For example, Shinyanga
Municipal schools now even surpass the national average, after being some 30%
below it in 2003. In addition, Shinyanga Rural District Council has managed to halve
the performance lag it had with the national average from 24% in 2003 to 11% in
2007. Also four of the best EQUIP schools in 2007 clearly indicate a sharp rise in
STD VII results between 2003 and 2007. For example, Mwanono Primary School
rose from a 10% pass rate in 2003, to a remarkable 100% in 2007. Tinde Primary
School rose from 18% to 62% over the same period.

While it is difficult to assess whether EQUIP can be fully attributed to these climbing
results, as some schools have received support from different agencies, especially
the six best Shinyanga schools, EQUIPs interventions directly targeted improving
academic teaching and learning which very likely contributed significantly to
achieving better examination results.

However, it is worth noting that while the passing rates for both girls and boys have
increased by 2007, the gender disparity between boys and girls has also risen. Much
greater attention must be played to addressing gender disparities within the
classroom and the school culture in the future.

7
EQUIPs schools have recorded a higher rate of transition to secondary schools than
the Shinyanga Region for both girls and boys. In 2003, Shinyanga Rural was the
lowest performing district in the region, now it is the third best, and the Municipal
Council maintained its position of recording the highest level, and this has further
accelerated.

EQUIP also has accomplished the introduction of a viable, feasible and sustainable
teacher In-service Training System in Shinyanga and made another successful
illustration of how professional development could be delivered to all primary school
teachers in Tanzania. The Model has filled a long felt gap in Shinyanga, and also in
Tanzania. Policy makers and educators should learn to recognise the effectiveness,
efficiency and the viability of this low-cost INSET Model, that can demonstrate
results even in schools that suffer from overcrowding, a lack of teachers, inflexible
furniture, limited learning materials, and a lack of basic utilities such as water,
electricity and toilets. The EQUIP INSET model is very much in line with the Primary
Education Development Programme (PEDP) and the Teacher Development
Management Strategy (TDMS) of Tanzania. Its impact is well recognised by the
user, the Local Government Authorities of Shinyanga, and it has committed to
sustain and institutionalise it. This again is a rare incident where a government has
readily and willingly accepted a donor project to be absorbed. The mainstreaming of
EQUIP interventions was possible because the Local Government of Shinyanga
districts were fully involved in the implementation of the project and they owned the
step-by-step growth and success of this project. This is a lesson whereby OXFAM
has demonstrated that it is important to keep the Government in the driving seat of
implementing any project in order to sustain it.

The project does have its shortcomings however. Better monitoring and evaluation
(M&E), focused on outcomes rather than on outputs, could have made the project
more successful and visible. OXFAMs Project Officers could have been more
efficiently deployed, particularly to the more remote schools. The lower primary
education cycle also could have received a different approach from the other classes
as their needs are more specific which could have increased the projects impact.
Change management and monitoring mechanisms, could have been introduced at
school and ward level, in order to support the introduction of child-centred processes
in school culture, and to shift further away from authoritarian practices. These micro-
management interventions could have been introduced much earlier with the
involvement of the Ward Education Coordinators. Such an approach would require
stronger macro District level monitoring together with the District Education Officers
and Inspectorate.

Finally, the in-service training system also has a few gaps. However, with a few
alterations it could stand as a replicable model at national level, incorporating new
incentives and a fulfilling career path for all primary school teachers in the country.
This evaluation provides recommendations for OXFAM, Shinyanga District
Authorities, and the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) on areas
of refinement to improve efficiency and impact.

8
Finally, it must be emphasised that the change that EQUIP is striving to achieve is
not easy. Capacity building requires time and continuous mentoring and monitoring,
even beyond what EQUIP has provided. Teachers certainly appreciate the
intervention and the impact it has brought on their teaching and student learning.
However, it is too early for OXFAM/EC to stop supporting Shinyangas teachers and
students. It is strongly felt that EQUIP has initiated a positive change and many
schools have only just received the full course of EQUIPs trainings. This evaluation
recommends that with some adjustments, EQUIP should continue to support the
change for a few more years and ensure its taking root in schools and classrooms.
OXFAMs involvement in day-to-day management needs to be carefully handed over
to the Local Government Authorities, although OXFAM should continue to provide
technical assistance on capacity building, and support addressing the adverse
factors that affect teacher performance. In view of the National TDMS, it seems that
EQUIP could even consider further expansion of EQUIP to other Shinyanga districts
and potentially other regions in Tanzania, rather than exit now.

9
 D. INTRODUCTION
The EQUIP project in Shinyanga, Tanzania began in 2003 with co-financing from
the European Commission (EC). The current five-year project cycle will end in
December 2008. This evaluation is called the final evaluation as it covers the
whole of the current project cycle. EQUIP aims to improve classroom practices
and learning through child centred pedagogy, and to develop a system of
empowering and developing teachers and children. The project is implemented in
all government primary schools in the Municipal and Rural District Councils that
make up the Shinyanga District. EQUIP has been supporting 172 primary
schools, around 1750 teachers, and over 100,000 students.

The project comprises of the following key elements:

Capacity building, which aims to improve the pedagogy or standards of
teaching and learning in primary classrooms by developing district-based
capacity for in-service training and mentoring;
Integration and empowerment, that integrates opportunities and
incentives that empower teachers to pursue their own professional
development and addresses the needs to motivate and empower teachers
to take responsibility for their own professional development;
Networking and partnership, which involves developing mechanisms for
teachers to share experiences about their work and to develop
partnerships and shared visions on the quality of education;
Monitoring, evaluation and advocacy which encompasses collecting
information through research and monitoring, evaluation and discussion
among stakeholders and using improved local planning and
implementation to advocate for policy review, and;
HIV/AIDS and Gender are cross cutting themes that are mainstreamed
within the project.

Though these elements are stated separately, these are integrated in all
activities. Therefore, the findings of this evaluation are not presented along the
above headings. The integration and empowerment, and networking and
partnership are all serving the same purpose of the professional development of
the teacher. Monitoring and evaluation is seen as an integral part of the project
and so is not treated as a separate intervention. Therefore, this report is
organised under two major headings, which are the two major interventions of
the project:

(A) The training of teacher and education sector actors to practice child
centred pedagogy in the classroom; and
(B) The establishment of a Teacher In-service Training System for the
professional development of teachers.

10
However, the report has addressed all concerns of the Terms of Reference
(TOR), yet has not followed the same order of specific objectives as given in the
TOR, but followed a more a logical flow of reporting.

11
The Relevance Of The Project
The EQUIP project is certainly very relevant and much needed. Since the
Jomtien Conference-led Education For All (EFA) initiative in March 1990, primary
education has been at the heart of development partners and governments
investments. OXFAM has also been a long-time player in the education sector.
The Millennium Development Goals, and the National Poverty Reduction
Strategies all target basic education for all. After the Dakar Framework, a major
shift is expected from access to access with quality education. EQUIP is very
much in line with this. However, globally there has been very little progress in
terms of achieving quality education. It is in this respect that EQUIP stands out
as an innovative approach. The project is much in line with the best practices in
the field, and they have gone beyond this to work to institutionalize an in-service
training system to support and stimulate the teacher and their teaching to put the
learner at the centre of learning. EQUIP possesses all these elements and is a
project that is well in line with international and national framework of EFA.

Capacity Building for In-Service Training and Mentoring:

Capacity building is one of the main objectives of EQUIP. The key intervention in
this project is centred on capacity building through training and establishing
supportive infrastructures and systems. There were two major interventions
geared to ensure child centred learning in schools. The project supports the
establishment of an in-service teacher training system and a school-based
mentoring system to provide continuous professional support to teachers. The
two key interventions were:

(A) Training of teacher and education sector actors to practice child

centred pedagogy in the classroom; and
(B) Establishing an In-service Teacher Training System for the
professional development of the teachers, including a school based
teacher mentoring and support system.

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 E. METHODOLOGY
The study is largely guided by the Terms of Reference (TOR) given to the
consultants (See Annex A). With careful analysis of the TOR the evaluation
team adopted the following rapid appraisal methods. This includes:
Review of EQUIP related documents, relevant Shinyanga Regional
documents and National level documents;
Consultations with key stakeholders;
School visits and visits to Teacher Resource Centres (TRC)
Focus group discussions (FGD) with stakeholders particularly students,
teachers and school committees;
Continuous discussion and interactions with OXFAM EQUIP staff and
Education Officers,
Administration of a questionnaire, to 74 teachers of four better performing
schools (two Municipal Council schools and two Rural Council schools)
that received training in the first round in January and June 2004.
Analysis of teachers and students records such as lesson plans, student
workbooks and teaching learning materials; and
Collection of school based data on student enrolment, repetition, dropout
and passing rates relating to the internal efficiency of the school system.

Review of Documents:
Annex B presents the list of documents reviewed by the evaluation team.

Consultations with Key Actors:

This included consultations with senior officials of the Shinyanga Districts,
Education Officials, the Head teachers, school based mentors, Trainers, Teacher
Resource Centre (TRC) Coordinators, Students, Parents and School
Committees, Ward Education Coordinators, Village Government Officials, and
Ward Executive Officers. Further consultations were also made with the
Teachers Trade Union (TTU) and the Shinyanga Teachers Network (SEN) (See
Annex -B for the list of persons).

Visits to Schools and TRCs:

The team visited one school each from the five (5) school clusters of the
Municipal district, and ten (10) schools in the rural districts. The Table 1 presents
the cluster-wise information of the schools selected for visits.

Sampling:
The team adopted a two-way strategy in the selection of schools. In order to
understand and assess the EQUIP Models full course of interventions and its
impact at school level, the team selected a purposive sample of six schools that
were identified by OXFAM staff and Shinyanga Education Officers as the schools
where EQUIP is better implemented. Out of these six schools, the team selected
four schools for in-depth analysis by administering a questionnaire to all teachers

13
(see Annex D) and selected students. Then the team selected a random sample
of nine primary schools to visit and make rapid appraisal of the schools. The
team first visited four of the six schools of the purposive sample. Investigation of
the nine randomly selected schools was much guided by the experience
collected at the four better performing schools. The Table 1 presents the schools
selected on purposive sampling and the random sampling. The better performing
6 schools are highlighted in bold and the 4 schools selected for in-depth study
are in normal font.

The team also visited TRCs in nine clusters and met with several teachers
networks (See Annex - C).

Questionnaire, Semi Structured Interviews/Focus Group Discussions:

The team administered a questionnaire to 74 teachers in the four schools of the
purposive sample - (See Questionnaire in Annex D) and this provided
quantitative data on many important aspects. The team also administered a
simple questionnaire to 36 students of the same four schools to understand the
socioeconomic aspect in classroom equity.
The team conducted semi structured interviews and Focus Group Discussions
with all key actors/stakeholders, and the list of participants are given in Annex C.
This includes the teachers, students, school committees, Village Government,
and Ward level to District level key officials.

Table 1: Distribution of Selected Sample Schools Across the Rural and

Municipal School Clusters
District Cluster Number of Selected Primary Year EQUIP
schools School began

Purposive Sample
Municipal Town 9 Mwenge PS January 2004
Bugoyi 11 Mapinduzi PS January 2005

Random Sample
Old Shinyanga 8 Mawampalala PS June 2005
Municipal Buhangija 6 Nhelegani PS June 2006
Ibadakuli 10 Bugweto PS January 2006
TOTAL 44 5

Purposive Sample
Tinde 13 Tinde PS June 2004
Rural Shingita 19 Ishinabulandi PS June 2004
Samuye PS June 2004
Didia 14 Mwanono PS June 2004

Random Sample
Didia (14) Puni PS June 2005

14
 Maskati 9 Usule PS June 2005
Hinduki / Mishepo 13 Masunula PS January 2006
Lybukande 10 Lyamidati PS January 2007
Solwa 10 --- January 2007
Nhendegese 11 ---- January 2007
Iselamagazi 12 Mwanakaranga PS June 2006
Shilabela 7 Mwalukwa PS January 2006
TOTAL 172 15

The team also presented a proposal on further strengthening of the teacher in-
service training system in the Shinyanga districts for discussion with teachers,
officials and members of Civil Society Organisations (CSO) in Shinyanga, and
key senior officials of Shinyanga Districts, MoEVT as well as UNICEF.

15
 F. ASSESSMENT OF EQUIP ACTIVITIES AND IMPACT

Training Of Teachers & Key Personnel

EQUIP has successfully completed this task. The project has successfully
delivered all the planned training activities, for example for 170 Trainers, 1587
teachers, 172 Head teachers, 332 school-based mentors, 688 school committee
members, and other education officials. However, this intervention is only the
entry point to generate a process of change in school and classroom culture to
shift from the traditional teacher centred teaching to that of true Child-Centred-
Learning.

In order to train the key personnel a core group of trainers was prepared to
deliver the training. The trainers were trained and training modules were
prepared in year 2003. The trainers have been selected from the Teacher
Training Colleges (TTC), Education Officials and Head teachers. The project set
targets to be trained and actual training started in January 2004. TTCs currently
provide pre-service training to teachers and the Shinyanga Region has
established a TTC this year, fulfilling a long felt need.

However, the set targets have been revised in view of the redefining of
Shinyanga district boundaries1 and the numbers was reduced, particularly in
respect of teachers. The targeted number was 2033 and though the actual
number of teachers in Shinyanga is around 1800.

The quantitative achievements of training are given in Table 2 and explained

below:

Table 2
Targeted Number and the Number Trained
ACTIVITY TARGET TRAINED Achievement
Training of Trainers (TOT) 134 170 126%
Foundation Training to Teachers 2033 1587 90%
(1750)
Curriculum Analysis for teachers 2033 1587 90%
(1750)
Developing Teaching Learning 2033 1587 90%
Materials (TLM) (1750)
Training on Difficult Topics 2033 1588 66%
Training of Mentors 340 322 95%
Training of Head teachers 175 139 79%
Special needs (inclusive education) 26
Action Research 60
Incentives 1086
Training of Head teachers and 194 204 105%

1
In 2002, Shinyanga Rural District Councils borders were defined and placed in Kishapu District instead.

16
Ward Education Coordinators (174 HT & 20 (172 HT+32
WEC) WEC)
School Committees Trained 4x172 = 688 688 100%
TRC Coordinators 24
School Librarians 27

The quantitative achievement in Training of Trainers (TOT) shows over a

100% accomplishment. Project trained 170 TOTs exceeding the targeted
134. This was necessary to avoid any shortfall of trainers due to transfers.
Currently, there are 145 Trainers in place. Also 22 training modules have
been prepared.
The project has achieved over 85% of the teacher training target in the
initial five-day training sessions. Although the project targeted training
2,033 teachers the actual number trained was 1587. This shortfall is due
to the loss of some of the targeted schools due to the redefinition of the
boundaries of the Shinyanga district. Furthermore, out of the 74 teachers
responded to a questionnaire administered by the team indicated only 68
teachers or 92% received the foundation training. The remaining 8% are
newly appointed teachers. Based on this estimation, it is reasonable to
assume that there may be over 150 new teachers serving in schools that
have not received EQUIP trainings. Also over 117 teachers who were
invited to participate in training were absent. This indicates that there
maybe over 250 teachers or about 15% of the teachers remaining
untrained in the district. Table 3 presents details of the distribution of
teachers who received EQUIP foundation training, broken down by District
Council and sex.
The project trained 332 (98%) mentors instead of the targeted 340. There
were a few schools where there is no in-house mentor and a teacher from
a nearby school has been deployed as a mentor.
The project trained 1587 teachers on the preparation and use of Teaching
Learning Materials (TLM) using locally available materials, though the
project targeted 2033 for this activity.
1587 teachers have been trained in curriculum analysis, and handling of
difficult topics in the primary school curriculum.
29 Ward Education Coordinators and 175 Head teachers have been
trained,
24 TRC Coordinators and 21 School Librarians were trained.
688 School Committee member of 172 School committees have been
trained
EQUIP also provided other interventions to schools such as the provision
of additional Teaching and Learning Materials.

Table 3
The Distribution of the Number of Teachers Received Foundation Training
TEACHERS RECEIVED FOUNDATION
DISTRICT SCHOOLS TRAINING

17
 YEAR COUNCIL FEMALE MALE TOTAL
2004 MUNICIPAL 5
RURAL 12 160 90 250
2005 MUNICIPAL 15
RURAL 19 233 117 350
MUNICIPAL 12 71 46 117
RURAL 27 63 145 208
2006 MUNICIPAL 10 54 59 113
RURAL 16 22 87 109
MUNICIPAL 7 48 43 91
RURAL 14 38 74 112
2007 RURAL 23 46 121 167
RURAL 12 10 60 70
2008 MUNICIPAL 39 8 47
RURAL 50 20 70
TOTAL 834 870 1704
ABSENTEES 89 28 117
T0TAL 172 745 842 1587
MUNICIPAL 49 566 355 921
RURAL 123 179 487 666
TOTAL 172 745 842 1587
(TARGETED NUMBER TO BE TRAINED 2033)

The qualitative achievements of EQUIP can only be accurately assessed if they

have passed through the full five years of EQUIPs intervention since 2004. The
schools that have received only a few years cannot be expected to have made
the shift in the school and classroom culture from the traditional training to that of
child centred training. Therefore, this evaluation did an in-depth study of four
schools that received the full course of EQUIPs training since year 2004 and
practiced child centred learning with interest.

Assessment of Training
I. Estimated Coverage of Teacher Training
Although the reported figures in Table 2 and 3 indicates all teachers were trained
in all four teacher training packages, the sample study and the questionnaire
administered to 74 teachers indicates that the number trained is less than what is
reported due to having new teachers in schools and also some teachers who
were invited for training but did not attend. The Figure 1 shows the difference
that more teachers received Foundation training though not all the other
subsequent follow up trainings.

Figure 1
Estimated Number of Teachers Received All Four Types of Trainings

18
 [Figure Removed]

II. Child Centred Learning:

The most noteworthy impact of EQUIP is that it has laid the foundation in
Shinyanga districts for child centred pedagogy and it has managed to bring
about a significant improvement in 15 20 schools where the full course of the
EQUIP intervention had been provided. The ability to demonstrate quality child
centred education to a satisfactory level in 15 20 schools out of 172 schools is
a noteworthy achievement for EQUIP in a five year span. It would be unrealistic
to expect a project to bring this degree of change in all schools. No project of this
scale could expect to bring about the expected change in all schools. And it has
never happened anywhere in the developing world where governments are
striving for improved systems.

EQUIP interventions towards child centred learning are well disseminated within
the Shinyanga region. The Regional Commissioner down to all education sector
officials in Shinyanga, were not only aware of EQUIP project and its
interventions, but were also highly appreciative of its contributions. The Head
teachers, teachers, students, school committees and civil society organisations
also acknowledged the excellent contribution of EQUIP to bring about this
pedagogical shift, and better quality education in class and schools.

However, there are issues and areas where EQUIP model needs to be improved
or better implemented. The following findings are largely based on the in-depth
study of the four schools and further supported by the observations made in
other schools:

III. Pool of Trainers and In-service Training Culture:

EQUIP has contributed to establish a pool of trainers in Shinyanga
Municipal and Rural district councils to support and sustain an in-service
training system and has fulfilled a long felt gap in the system.
The output monitoring indicated based on the trainees evaluation of
training, recorded in the eM&E database at OXFAM, indicates that the
delivery of most of the trainings, including the TOTs were very satisfactory
and well accomplished. The semi-structured interviews with teachers and
the written responses of the teachers of the better performing schools
indicated, in general, that the training was satisfactory. However, the
teachers who responded to the questionnaire indicated it would have been
better if superior experts were involved in delivering the training.
Some teachers indicated that trainers could have been selected on a
subject-basis and that could have helped the subject-specific teachers
better.
Over 35% of the teachers indicated the training did not cover sufficiently
class time management with the new pedagogy. The team also
observed even in good schools where a more competent teacher was

19
 demonstrating a lesson for observation, they could not manage the
classroom time efficiently to ensure that they ended the lesson on-time.
This was repeatedly observed in many classrooms where child centred
pedagogy was seen.
Over 20% of the teachers also indicated that they need more training on
the preparation and appropriate use of locally made TLMs.
Over 20% of the teachers said more subject based training with the new
pedagogy would have better enhanced their skills.

IV. Teachers Training and Use of Pedagogy:

If not all, many teachers in the Phase 1 schools where EQUIP completed
a full cycle of interventions used child centred approach in classrooms.
EQUIP was introduced in the 6 better performing schools in year 2004.
However, the degree of child centred learning varied from teacher to
teacher in the six schools. Most of the teachers in these six schools can
be said to be teachers attempting to adopt themselves to child centred
learning in traditional classrooms settings. In two schools (Mwenge PS in
Municipal district and Mwanono PS in Rural district) even under traditional
settings, teachers demonstrated satisfactory practice of child centred
teaching.
The 74 teachers who responded to the questionnaire in the four better-
practicing schools -- (Mwenge PS, Mapunduzi PS in Municipal council and
Samuye PS & Tinde PS in rural council), 64 teachers or 86% indicated
that they use child centred methods. Fifty-five (55) teachers indicated at
least one advantage of the child centred approach. They indicated a
positive change in their pedagogical skills. In the semi-structured
interviews with teachers in all 15 schools, except in one school (Puni PS),
the teachers indicated that the child centred approach contributed to their
classroom practice; yet many of them were not practicing it due to the
unfavourable classroom conditions.
The teachers consider their students as a source of knowledge and
student participation was witnessed in observation classes. The semi-
structured interviews with the students, without the presence of teachers,
also indicated that corporal punishment in classroom has significantly
reduced. Teachers use alternative punishments that are much milder than
the canning and the beating. Students also indicated that their teachers
use cooperative learning, such as group work more often than before.
About 25% of the teachers who responded to the questionnaire, stated the
most significant change in their teaching due to EQUIP training, is that
they involve students in lessons much more than before.
Use of TLMs and making teaching aids is on the increase and pupils too
participate in preparing them. The teachers used some TLMs even in the
weakest lessons that the team observed. Only 10% of the teachers who
responded to the questionnaire indicated that learning to use TLMs has
been a significant contribution of EQUIP. Though, 13% of the respondents

20
stated they need further training on TLMs. However, the team also
observed in many rural schools, the TLMs that were available, such as the
science kits and maps were stored and have not being used for sometime.
The teacher-teacher sharing of classroom pedagogy and participatory
learning has significantly increased in the schools where EQUIP is better
received and practiced. 20% of the teachers share their classroom
pedagogical skills every day with the other teachers. Over 75% indicated
they share the pedagogical skills with other teachers frequently. 77% of
the teachers of these four schools also indicated that other teachers of the
same school frequently share pedagogical experience with him/her. The
teachers also indicated that they did share such information even before
EQUIP training, but certainly it has significantly increased as a result of
EQUIP training.
60% of the teachers of the four schools indicated that they share their
pedagogical skills with teachers of other schools. The teachers indicated
that they shared experiences at nearby primary schools and/or TRCs.
In the practice of child centred pedagogy in schools, including the
identified better schools, the team observed through careful examination
of student workbooks, that many teachers did examine students work
more regularly. This is a good development. However, following the
corrections there was no remedial teaching done. No student could tell
what the correct answer is or how the mistake should be corrected. The
training and practice need closer monitoring to make more of a positive
change in teacher and student behaviour, and this has been a weaker
aspect of EQUIPs management.
However, there were no incidents observed of where there was childto-
child interaction, or a child taking the lead in learning, for example, where
a child is asking a question from another student. So far, learning is still
very much teacher motivated and teacher-driven but with the intention of
involving the child. To achieve this behavioural change in the classroom,
students must be further empowered to learn. Nevertheless, this is a long
journey and no project can achieve this so quickly, especially when we
consider the projects starting point.
As many trainers may not have seen true child-centred learning in practice
in order to demonstrate it to their teachers, it is recommended that further
efforts must be made to ensure that all the trainers must be expertly
proficient practitioners of child-centred teaching and learning. Training
should also be differentiated between Grades 1-2 and Grades 3-7,
because the nature of interactive learning in the early stages and the next
stage are different. Furthermore, the use of child-centred training videos,
such as those produced by Japan International Cooperation Agency
(JICA), is recommended during the teacher training in order to strengthen
the teachers hand-on skills.
The teachers in Kindergarten, Grade one and two classes indicated that
the child centred methodology, as it was taught cannot be practiced in
their classrooms. This was due to several reasons.

21
 (i) One reason is that the mother tongue of most of the children in the
Shinyanga schools is Sukuma and the medium of instruction is
Kiswahili, this makes it difficult for the teachers in Class I & 2 to use
any methodology with success.
(ii) Secondly the classes are too large. Often the largest class in the
rural schools is the Grade one.
(iii) Further, the furniture is totally unsuitable for the younger children. All
schools have only one type of furniture for all grades.
(iv) Moreover, the EQUIP training did not pay any special attention to
develop special methods for the lower cycle of the primary school.
Therefore, the practice of child centred methods in the lower primary
cycle is unsatisfactory; particularly so in the rural schools where
classes were too big and a male teacher is assigned as the class
teacher.

V. Mentors and Mentoring:

EQUIP has established a teacher mentoring system. This has had a direct
impact on classroom learning and has added an important element to the
in-service training system.
Mentors training were given over and above the teachers regular training.
Except for a few schools, each school has an in-house mentor. 86% of the
74 teachers of the four better schools indicated that he or she has a
mentor assigned. 85% indicated that the mentor visits her/his classes.
30% indicated that their mentors visit weekly, while 50% indicated monthly
visits. About 10% indicated the visits were quarterly and 3% indicated that
their mentor never visited them.
Better selection criteria for mentors need to be established. The selection
of mentors is a sensitive issue at school level. The semi-structured
interviews indicated that in some schools the mentor was selected based
on the popular vote of the teachers and in some places they indicated that
the mentors were hand picked by the Head teacher. In the semi-structured
interviews with Mentors and Trainers it was indicated that the selection
criteria need to be more transparent so that they are chosen fairly.
However, even in the chosen four good schools, the acceptance of the
mentor by some teachers was low. This would be common, as one
teacher has to be selected as a mentor from amongst their colleagues.
The quality of mentoring depends on many factors. The school
observations indicated that many of the mentors are regularly attending to
their functions. However, the degree of seriousness in mentoring
significantly varied from the good schools to the weaker ones. The worst
case of mentoring was seen at Puni PS where the mentors last visit to a
class was on May 14, 2008. The mentor himself never prepared Lesson
Plans and except for one teacher no one has prepared lesson plans, and
rarely a teacher went to teach in a class. However, in the same school the
English teacher prepared lesson plans on daily basis and has taken
English class regularly. This was evident from the students workbooks

22
 and teachers lesson plan record books, and the students further
confirmed this.

VI. Head teachers Training:

Although this was relatively a weaker component of the project due to its
failure to bring about an intensive school based micro management
system, it has made some impact on the schools where the Head
teachers were more competent.
It is reported that a total of 172 Head teachers and 29 Ward Education
Coordinators were trained. This indicates that all Ward Education
Coordinators and Head teachers have been trained. However, there are
newly appointed Head teachers in some schools who have not received
the training. Of the 15 schools visited, it was found that three (03) Head
teachers have not received training. If any estimate is made based on this
observation, there maybe there are about 50 Head teachers untrained by
EQUIP. These schools also happened to be the weaker ones.
Current educational research indicates that the Head teacher is often the
most critical factor for the success of schools. The Head teacher is the
only one who has the authority to provide in-house supervision on all
teachers and mobilise all actors for the effective and efficient functioning
of the school. EQUIP targeted the change of school and classroom
practice from traditional methods to child centred pedagogy. This involves
transforming the exiting school and classroom culture and establishing a
new culture. The Head teacher has a key role to play in this. However,
this important activity has received much less attention in the
implementation of EQUIP. This has contributed to the failure of bringing
the full-expected change in many schools.
EQUIPs training combined Head teachers training with the Ward
Education Coordinators where they were introduced to the monitoring
system. This was a good move. However, this joint training opportunity
could have been better utilised to bring about the necessary change
process at the school and ward levels. This could have been done through
the regular coordination of EQUIP activities together with the Ward
Education Coordinators, the Head teachers, the Mentors, Academic
Teachers and the School Committees.

VII. Teacher Resource Centres:

Teacher Resource Centres (TRCs) are one of EQUIPs major
contributions that will bring about a long term impact on the teacher in-
service training system and the quality improvement in student learning.
The Shinyanga Rural District Council has eight TRCs, while the Municipal
District Council has four TRCs. EQUIP has built five new TRCs and
renovated a further seven. Now teachers have access to TRC services
within 5 kms of their primary schools in their neighbouring clusters, when
previously they had to travel over 50 kms to the nearest library.

23
 In view of the in-service training for teachers, the TRCs are a valuable
addition and EQUIPs contribution to strengthen TRCs is a positive step in
the right direction and is in line with the Teacher Development and
Management Strategy (TDMS) of the Primary Education Development
Programme (PEDP) of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training.
The training of 24 people as the TRC Coordinator and the TRC
Coordinators Assistant for the 12 TRCs was a good move, so that there is
an additional person ready to be deployed as the TRC Coordinator if in
case the presently deployed teacher is transferred to another location.
TRCs need to be fully integrated into the national in-service training
system which is part of the Teacher Development Management Strategy
(TDMS) now under development. EQUIP model needs to be firmed up
and aligned to make a national level contribution. These are further
discussed else where in this report under in-service training.

VIII. School libraries:

In addition to the construction and renovation on TRCs, EQUIP also
renovated 27 school libraries (22 in Rural Council, 7 in Municipal) to act as
demonstrative examples of good practice that the local authorities could
learn from.
EQUIP also has provide training to 27 School Librarians in all the libraries.
A regular school teacher is deployed as School Librarian.
Nevertheless, 27 school libraries in a district with 172 schools are grossly
insufficient, and this is a structural issue that the local government must
resolve.

IX. Training of School Committees:

EQUIP has trained 4 school committee members from each school. A total
of 688 members of 172 school committees have therefore received
training. The impact of this training is seen in the good schools. Schools
like Samuye has taken the benefit of EQUIPs training, and the school
committee have established linkages with Village Government. The
Village Government indicated that the Samuye School Committee is a
sub-committee of the Village Government. This seems the right way to
gather support for school improvement programs. The involvement of
parents is an important factor that matters for a childs learning,
particularly for self-learning. In general this was a weaker area. School
Committees could have better brought this dimension to schools to
strengthen learning achievements.

24
X. Crosscutting Issues: HIV/AIDS and Gender:
In all trainings where applicable these issues have been addressed.
However, the degree of attention paid to these issues could have been
greater. No school amongst the 15 schools visited had the clubs or
awareness programs.
The responses in the questionnaire administered to teachers in the better
four schools, largely female teachers, indicated only 46% of them received
any training exposure on HIV/AIDS from some source and 75% received
the exposure through the Ministry of Health and World Vision. Four
teachers out of the 74 responded indicated they received the exposure
through OXFAM interventions.
Similarly 46% of the teachers responded to the questionnaire indicated
that they had some awareness /exposure training on gender issues. Most
of them indicated that they addressed the gender issues in school and
classroom, mostly indicated that the teachers value mutual understanding
and respect between boys and girls.
The school visits confirmed that in the Municipal district the gender issues
disparity and equity in classroom was fairly good. However, the disparity
was evident in the rural schools.

XI. Networking and M&E:

OXFAM has initiated civil society dialogue and networking at both the
macro and micro levels in Tanzania. At the national level it has helped to
found and support the Tanzania Education Network (TEN/MET), and at
the micro level, supported the establishment of the Shinyanga Education
Network (SEN). SEN is now officially registered and currently has 25
members that include international and local NGOs, CSOs, CBOs, FBOs,
Trade Unions, private sector and education institutions. SEN aims to
enhance the rights of Shinyangas school children, teachers and parents
and serve as mouthpiece for all the silent and voiceless members of the
community. SENs three key advocacy issues until 2010 are: 1) the
ensuring that there is regular in-service training for all teachers; 2) tackling
negative cultural beliefs towards girls education; and 3) improving school
governance. SEN is actively working on advocacy and good governance,
and has instigated some budget tracking of decapitation funds. SEN has
been very instrumental in lobbying and advocating for effective local
education information collection, documentation and dissemination.
Both SEN and the Teachers Network are at a very early stage. Their
credibility has to be earned. SEN is working towards independence from
OXFAM/EQUIP assistance and has now registered with the Tanzania
Education Network (TEN/MET) which is a positive step for their self-
reliance. The most active participants of SEN were mostly retired or
serving individuals in the education sector rather than the NGO members,
indicating that it is still too early to be considered as a matured network

25
that could support good governance in the education sector, without
EQUIPs assistance.
EQUIP also supported the establishment of teachers network for the
professional development of teachers. The Teachers Network need
further support to be seen as a viable network for the teachers. The
Teachers Network and SEN need to develop their advocacy roles to be
effective catalysts in the process of encouraging good governance and the
promotion of quality education. However, although the project expected
feed the findings from the M&E system into its advocacy campaigning, this
was not achieved to its best potential, as the M&E system was relatively
weak.

26
 Results and Impact of Training and Related Activities

Positive Attitudes towards Child Centred Learning: One obvious impact is

that all stakeholders have developed positive attitudes towards the child centred
approach and participatory learning in classrooms. This was evident at all levels
of local government administration, Head teachers and teachers, students and
community, with only very few exceptions.

Life of Students Improved: The semi-structured interviews with students, with

no teacher involvement, indicated that corporal punishment has significantly
decreased. Some punishments remain but the nature of it has changed in a
somewhat more acceptable manner. Yet, some schools continue to use canning
and beating in schools and classes. Students also indicated that there is more
cooperative learning in schools.

Teachers now come regularly and are student friendly. It was also observed that
students do actively participate in class activities. Teachers also ask more
questions to involve their students, and correct their workbooks. In most of the
schools, even where more traditional lessons were witnessed, the teachers
attempted to involve their students through questioning. However, except in one
school, Mwanono PS, there was no remedial teaching for the weaker learners in
other schools.

Though EQUIPs main intervention was teacher training, it has worked to create
a better teaching and learning environment and improved learning resources.
EQUIP has provided books to schools, and constructed and renovated Teacher
Resource Centres (TRCs) and libraries. It has also trained teachers to make their
own Teaching Learning Materials (TLM) together with their students. School
learning environments have improved, the teachers are more motivated, and the
learners behaviours have also certainly improved.

EQUIP has also supported good school governance by training and mobilising
School Committees, Head teachers, Ward Education Coordinators; created a
pool of professional Mentors; promoted school pupil clubs; and established the
Teachers Network and the Shinyanga Education Network (SEN) to track school
financing, etc. EQUIP in a more modest way also worked with school community
to raise awareness on the importance of educating children, HIV/AIDS and
gender issues; addressed water and sanitation issues by constructing rainwater
harvesting tanks and community shallow and deep wells in some schools; and
implemented a successful school feeding programme during a period of severe
drought in 2006.

The schools that received most of these elements of the full EQUIP model or
package, and where interventions to bring school committees and village
governments to work in closer cooperation demonstrated the best school

27
environments, and the students were the most assertive. The best example of
this is seen in three schools of the six better schools the team visited on this
evaluation, Samuye PS, Mwanono PS and Ishilabulandi PS. Samuye PS and
Ishilabulandi PS are semi-urban schools and Mwanono is a remote rural school.
In these schools, the participation and the motivation of the School Committees,
Village Government, and the parents in schools development is very high. The
cooperative attitude of teachers and students was much evident. That has
brought about the real change in school learning environment. Both schools
record a high degree of academic achievement at PSLE, and Mwanono PS even
recorded a 100% passing rate at PSLE in 2007.

However, the full EQUIP Model was not in place in many schools. The library
books, the other TLMs, water and sanitation provision, and the non-training type
physical inputs showed a skewed distribution in favour of better performing
schools within easy access. The schools with better and committed Head
teachers have benefited more and the schools with weaker Head teachers have
not taken the advantage of such trainings given to school committees. Head
teacher and school committee training are areas that could have been further
strengthened, especially as Head teachers are often the most critical factor for
the success of schools and could have been used as catalysts to bring about
child-centred learning.

Unanticipated Longer Term Impact: During the period of prolonged drought in

Shinyanga in 2007, OXFAM contributed to a school-feeding programme for 3 6
months. This has had a major impact on many schools on both attendance and
attainment. In some schools, the school committee, the parents, the village
governments, and in several schools with the further assistance from African
Inland Church or World Vision are continuing the school lunch programme which
has continuing to a strong impact on student attendance and achievement. This
is a very positive longer term impact of EQUIP that was not anticipated at the
beginning of the project.

However, it is the schools with better management that are continuing the
school-feeding programme. Many other rural schools requested the evaluation
team to ask OXFAM to reintroduce the school lunch programme as it had
brought great benefits. If EQUIP could have offered additional training to school
committees and to all Head teachers, and further supported the schools micro
level planning and monitoring, perhaps this could have been sustained in more
schools.

28
 EQUIPs Impact on National Examination Results and Learning
Outcomes

The impact of EQUIP on the Shinyanga Districts Primary School Leaving

Examination results between 2003-2007 must be examined within the context
that nationally examination results have dramatically increased from 27% in 2002
to 76% by 2007. This has been in part due to the Governments Primary
Education Development Programme (PEDP) that has expanded the number of
classrooms, teachers, textbooks and other facilities through the decapitation
grants to all schools in Tanzania. Nevertheless, Shinyanga is one of the lowest
performing regions and has an average pass rate of 61% against the national
average of 76% (MoEVT BEST 2007, p. 32-33 and MoEVT Best Regional Data
2007).

The evaluation team examined the PSLE results and Grade 4 passing rates
more closely to assess the likely impact of EQUIP. The Table 4 presents the
PSLE examination results of the best six EQUIP schools identified by education
officials and OXFAM. Comparisons are made against National Averages and
Shinyanga Regional Averages. Further illustrations are done through comparison
of the Six Better Performing EQUIP Schools with other schools, where the full
course of EQUIP interventions were not received. Where there is no data
available for the other districts of Shinyanga the comparisons were made only
with the available data. Comparisons are made on rural vs. municipal schools
and girls vs. boys.

However, even within the context of great national progress as a result of the
Governments Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP), the
progress of the Shinyanga Municipal and Rural District Councils between 2003
and 2007 in national STD IV and STD VII examinations have also been
remarkable.

How Shinyanga District Results Fare Vis--vis Regional and National

Averages (STD VII 2003-7)

It is clear from Figure 2 that Shinyanga Municipal district council has generally
performed as one of the best, if not the best, district in the Shinyanga region in
the National STD VII School Learning Examinations. However, the Shinyanga
rural district council has always been low performer, either the lowest or one
before last in the region. Nevertheless, the progress between 2003 and 2007
has been remarkable.

According to Figure 3, the gap between the relatively poor performing two District
Councils and the national has narrowed between 2003 and 2007, and Shinyanga
Municipal schools now even surpass the national average, after being some 30%
below it in 2003. Similarly, Shinyanga rural district has also progressed greatly to

29
halve the gap with the national average from 24% in 2003 to 11% in 2007
(National 40% vs Shy Rural 16% in 2003; National 70% vs Shy Rural 59% in
2007).

30
 Figure 2

[Figure Removed]

Figure 3

[Figure Removed]

How the Six Better Performing EQUIP Schools Fared in Exam Results
(2003-7)

If we look beyond the average for the two district councils and examine how the
six best EQUIP schools have fared the STD VII PSLE results are equally notable
(see Figure 4 and Table 4). Mwenge and Samuye Primary Schools were both
well performing schools before EQUIP, so it is difficult to attribute their continuing
high passing rates to EQUIP. However, the other four schools clearly indicate a
sharp rise in results between 2003 and 2007 (see red arrows on Figure 4). For
example, Mwanono Primary School rose from a 10% pass rate in 2003, to a
remarkable 100% in 2007. Tinde Primary School rose from 18% to 62% over the
same period. This very clearly demonstrates that these four schools have vastly
improved and became very good schools since 2003.

Nevertheless, it is important to note that that all of these 6 best schools also
received development support in addition to EQUIP, such as from the World
Vision and African Inland Church supported school lunch programme, and
teachers quarters built by the Village government and the School Management
Committees, etc. Therefore, naturally it is difficult to disaggregate the results by
contributor, and it is better to recognise that through greater collective efforts,
these schools have achieved greater prominence.

Nevertheless, as EQUIPs interventions directly targeted improving academic

teaching and learning, this would have contributed more to achieve better
examination results. The impact of EQUIP on student learning as an outcome is
witnessed in these schools. If EQUIP was better managed and monitored, it has
high potential to bring about a significant positive change in all students learning.

31
 Table 4
PSLE Pass Rates of the Six Better Performing EQUIP
Schools in Shinyanga Districts
Grade 7 pass rate by year (Both Sexes)
School 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
85% 82% 96% 99% 90%
Mwenge
98% 92% 100% 87% 90%
Samuye
Mapinduzi NA 32% 58% 73% 67%
Tinde 18% 22% 23% 55% 62%
Ishinabulandi 26% 24% 58% 68% 67%
Mwanono 10% 19% 48% 86% 100%
Grade 7 pass rate (Girls)
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
77% 80% 91% 99% 90%
Mwenge
Samuye 100% 100% 100% 91% 78%
Mapinduzt NA 33% 89% 58% 79%
Tinde 15% 18% 23% 47% 55%
Ishinabulandi 44% 18% 69% 55% 63%
Mwanono 0% 6% 22% 75% 100%

32
 Figure 4

[Figure Removed]

Figure: 5

[Figure Removed]

Increasing Gender Disparities in Achievement for PSLEs

However, it is worth noting that while the passing rates for both girls and boys
have increased by 2007, the gender disparity between boys and girls has also
risen (see Figures 6 and 7). In 2003 the passing rates of Grade 7 PSLE was low
for girls and boys. By 2007 the passing rates for both girls and boys increased,
yet the disparity between the girls and boys have significantly increased. This is
true in both Municipal and rural schools. The Samuye PS is one of the best that
the team has seen and even there the PSLE results from 2003 to 2007 show that
girls are in fact performing worse than before. This needs to be addressed.
Perhaps the girl child is given more work such as school cleaning; fetching water,
at the detriment of their education, reinforcing their discrimination. Much greater
attention must be played to addressing gender disparities within the classroom
and the school culture in the future.

Figure: 6
[Figure Removed]

Figure: 7
[Figure Removed]

Grade Four Pass Rate Progress

The available data is insufficient to make an in-depth analysis based on the
Grade 4 pass rates. Table 5 summarises the average Grade 4 passing rates of
girls and boys of the six schools of the purposive sample schools against the
national average. Figures 8 clearly shows that the six schools were below the
national average in 2003 to 2005, have now improved greatly and surpassed the
national average in 2006 and 2007. Although this may not happened purely due
to EQUIP yet, as EQUIP is the only project influencing academic quality of
learning it is not difficult for one to argue that this is due to its key interventions of
teacher training, child centred learning, school committee strengthening, and the
provision of additional materials for schools.

Table 5
Average Grade 4 Passing Rates of Six Best
EQUIP Schools Against the National Average
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

33
 Girl 69% 52% 77% 94% 86%
Boy 80% 69% 78% 95% 88%
Both 75% 61% 78% 94% 87%
National 89% 86% 88% 80% N/A

Table 6 presents the Grade 4 passing rates of the 6 best EQUIP schools as well
as 5 other randomly selected schools. It is clearly seen that seven schools out of
the eleven have remained above the national average.

Table 6
Grade 4 Passing Rates of 10 EQUIP Schools
Schools 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Mwenge 98% 86% 100% 100% 92%
Samuye 88% 67% 88% 95% 96%
Mapinduzi 47% 21% 32% 85% 68%
Tinde 68% 79% 95% 96% 92%
Mwamakan
ga 92% 58% 83% 72% 50%
Nhelegani 71% 80% 32% 79% 89%
Usule 89% 90% 79% 82% 87%
Lyamidati 100% 100% 100% 90% 100%
Ishinabulan
di 82% 82% 82% 82% 82%
Mwanono 100% 100% 96% 100% 98%
Bugweto - - - 98% 90%
National 89% 86% 88% 80% N/A

34
 Figure 8
Best SIX EQUIP Schools Grade 4 Passing Rate Against National Rate
[Figure Removed]

Transition to Secondary Education

EQUIPs schools have recorded a higher rate of transition to secondary schools
than the Shinyanga Region for both girls and boys (see Tables 7 and 8, and
Figure 9). In 2003, Shinyanga Rural was the lowest performing district in the
region, now it is the third best, and the Municipal Council maintained its position
of recording the highest level, and this has further accelerated.

Furthermore, the six better performing EQUIP schools of rural and municipal
districts show a higher rate of transition from 2004. Though this also indicates
that the best six schools would have been better schools even before EQUIP. It
is also noted that the rural schools continue to have the lower transition rates
through out.

35
 Table 7
SECONDARY SCHOOL SELECTION AGAINST THE NUMBER REGISTERED IN
GRADE SEVEN IN SHINYANGA DISTRICTS AND REGION FROM 2003 2007
SHINYANGA 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
DISTRICTS TOTAL TOTAL TOTAL TOTAL TOTAL
Bariadi 6% 9% 16% 28% 58%
Bukombe 9% 12% 16% 42% 54%
Kahama 8% 12% 25% 34% 63%
Maswa 8% 13% 27% 27% 72%
Meatu 6% 11% 15% 26% 42%
SHY: Municipal 10% 18% 28% 65% 75%
SHY: Rural 4% 10% 15% 37% 59%
SHY: Region 6% 11% 19% 33% 59%
SIX BEST EQUIP 27% 31% 57% 65% 64%
BEST THREE MUN n/a 10% 18% 28% 65%
BEST THREE RUR n/a 5% 10% 16.00% 38%

Table 8: Rate of Enrolment at Secondary School From

EQUIP Schools
GENDER 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Grade
EQUIP G 23.0% 27% 59% 57% 63%
Best Six B 30.4% 38% 57% 76% 67%
Total 26.7% 31% 57% 65% 64%
Shinyang G n/a 09.0% 17.8% 29% 52.5%
a B 11.0% 19.7% 26.9% 77.2%
Municipal Total 10.0% 18.3% 27.9% 65.4%
G 04.4% 10.3% 15.8% 26.1%
Shinyang B n/a 04.6% 10.8% 15.3% 48.3%
a Rural Total 04.5% 10.4% 15.6% 37.8%
G n/a n/a n/a n/a 46.8%
B 55.3%
National Total 51.2%

Figure 9
[Figure Removed]

Internal Efficiency of EQUIP Schools

Gross or net enrolment rates in a given single school or several schools are not
meaningful reference indicators, as school enrolments are not confined to a
known population. A more meaningful reference one can make is to examine the
cohort data of Grade 1 children progressing through the primary school cycle,
and then entering the secondary level. In the case of Shinyanga rural and
municipal districts councils the net enrolment is published as 100%, which is an
unreliable estimate. Table 9 shows the internal efficiency of the schools.

36
 Table 9
INTERNAL EFFICIENCY OF SIX BEST EQUIP SCHOOLS (2003
2007)
Wastage 25% Dropout 8.8%
Repetition 16.3%
Completion Completion 74.9%
INTERNAL EFFICIENCY OF 11 EQUIP SCHOOLS (2003
2007)
Wastage 27% Dropout 12.0%
Repetition 14.9%
Completion 73.1%

The average rate of completion in the 11 EQUIP schools where data was
collected indicates that 73% of the children that entered Grade 1 completed
Grade 6.

Moreover, the Cohort indicates 27% wastage, with 12% Dropout and 14.9%
Repeaters. The internal efficiency of the best six EQUIP schools indicate a 75%
completion rate and 25% wastage (8.8% Dropout and 16.3% Repeaters). The
internal efficiency of the best six EQUIP school is not significantly different from
the other EQUIP schools. However, there are no comparable estimates of
dropouts, repeaters and completion at regional and national levels to make a
comparative inference.

37
 Key Observations and Recommendations

Whether OXFAM intends to exit from the Shinyanga district or wishes to expand
to other districts in the Shinyanga region or beyond, the EQUIP programmes
should take the following recommendations into account:

Greater focus on desired outcomes, rather than on outputs:

The EQUIP M&E system indicators are more centred on outputs than on
outcomes. Although, EQUIP revised the logframe towards outcome-based
indicators in 2007, this was too late in the project to make a significant impact.
The approach to the implementation of the project centred on training, while the
main expected outcome of the project interventions was to bring about a change
in school and classroom practice. In particular, the transformation of classroom
and school culture from a teacher-centred, authoritarian approach to a child-
centred approach which empowers the student as the learner and the teacher as
a facilitator in the process, were the desired outcomes. Even the establishment of
TRCs and other linkages were to strengthen this process of change through the
professional development of the teachers. The implementation strategy of the
project could have strongly followed its expected outcomes rather than the
outputs. The training outputs are simply milestones on the longer journey
towards change. These milestones are only pre-requisites to the expected
process. It is the process that should have been managed and monitored to bring
change as an outcome in schools, teachers, and students. This was somewhat
neglected and could have been an added opportunity for the project to
demonstrate the full potential impact of the EQUIP process.

Annex E shows the status of project achievements against the defined indicators.
However, some of the indicators, such as student enrolment, are not directly
relevant to the project as there were only minor direct interventions by EQUIP to
increase enrolment, through community sensitation on the importance of
educating their children at the start of the programme. Moreover, the Shinyanga
Municipal and Rural District Councils reported 100% net enrolment as per 2007
published data (Basic Education Statistics in Tanzania, p. 37, 2007). Similarly no
baseline survey of schools to assess dropout and repeat rates was carried out.
The data reported in the baseline indicators are general indicators taken from
secondary sources. It would have been better if each school could have
established its initial profile before EQUIPs interventions which could have been
used as a baseline for school interventions. This would have refined the
expected interventions as well as given a better opportunity to manage and
monitor schools with regard to the expected changes as outcomes.

38
Greater Micro-level Planning around Change Management:
To contribute to the achievement of the expected outcomes in the school and
classroom micro-level planning and change management should go hand-in-
hand with training. Capacity building is a long journey. It requires more than just
training. It needs interactive interventions at the school level. This micro level
management of change is a follow-up to training without which many of the
trainees may not practice what the training expected them to practice when they
return to their classrooms.

Change management and monitoring mechanisms, could have been introduced

at school, ward and district level, in order to support the introduction of child-
centred processes into school culture, and to shift further away from authoritarian
practices. These micro-management interventions could have been introduced
much earlier with the involvement of the Ward Education Coordinators.

EQUIP could have introduced School-level Change Management

Committees that would have been responsible for both managing and
monitoring the expected changes in their school. The committees could have
been comprised of the Ward Education Coordinators or Officers, the Head
teacher, the Mentor and other teachers. This could have managed change better.
It would also have allowed the Education Authorities and OXFAM to monitor the
process of change every fortnight at school level.

The Ward Education Coordinator would have been in a good position to provide
the necessary leadership for this. Ward Education Officers particularly in the
Shinyanga Rural District Council supervises 5 10 schools, and they could have
been given the responsibility for this intensive monitoring of change. The school
level committee could have easily managed the essentials, such as lesson
planning, classroom sitting arrangements for group work, TLM preparation, peer
tutoring, and remedial teaching etc.

Above the school-level Change Management Committees, there could be Ward

Level Monitoring & Evaluation Units established that would oversee and
monitor the changes at school level. This requires training on school
development planning. The plan of action should be a feasible and achievable
change which should generate the school level process of change and support it
to gain speed. The Head teachers and Ward Education Coordinator, School
Committee and Mentors at schools have to be managed and monitored.

Finally, the Ward Education Coordinators monitoring has to be supervised at the

district level through a District Level Macro Management Unit headed by the
Education Officers, and School Inspectorate could provide the necessary
leadership as well as supervision. Unfortunately, no previous evaluations
touched on these issues and provided any direction to the project team. If this
proposed monitoring and change management system had been adopted earlier,

39
and institutionalised, the project could have probably achieved even better
outcomes in more schools.

Stronger Monitoring & Evaluation System Needed:

There seems to be little evidence to support that the investment by OXFAM in an
electronic monitoring, evaluation and learning system supplied by AID IT has
paid significant dividends to the project or the internal reports on EQUIP.

AID IT set up an e-M&E database and provided training to key project personnel
in February 2006 and produced a training manual. The e-M&E system envisions
a six-step cycle to follow. However, there seems to be indication that the system
followed the full cycle. In our judgement it stopped at analysis. To our
knowledge, the team produced no analytical reports based on the e-M&E
system. The OXFAM internal Quarterly Reports of the project were no more
than reports on which training activities took place in the quarter, rather than a
more detailed analysis of the impacts of these trainings. Although this has been
pointed out in several of the previous documents, the evaluation team notes no
sign of progress. Having a sophisticated system that fails to respond to the needs
of the project efficiency and effectiveness is as good as not having any system in
place.

Moreover, the eM&E seems to have hindered the usual M&E system that
OXFAM usually uses successfully, as it seems to have provided false
expectations that it automatically generated the information, and it stopped the
regular system of school monitoring through observations and sharing of
experiences among team members, to identify new directions for efficiency gains
and results. More importantly, if a system is to monitor outcomes, more frequent
monitoring of teachers behaviour and school climates is much needed and this
has not happened. School visits were rare. The project officers together with the
Education Officers could have been deployed to monitor and manage this
process of change at school and Ward levels, rather than simply monitoring
inputs and outputs.

The Head teachers and mentors were trained to facilitate a process of change.
The Education Officials were oriented and were involved in helping to monitor
and supervise the implementation of pedagogy. However, these were not
effectively utilised in the monitoring of change. Unless the management brings in
effective monitoring strategies to manage the desired changes, the changes will
not come merely by training key actors in the process. This is especially the case
in schools, which have a long history of using teacher dominant, authoritarian
and repressive methods. If the right M&E system had followed the best practice
of regular monitoring of classroom and schools, the system would have
performed better.

40
Different Phased Implementation Strategy next time:
If a similar project to EQUIP is to be replicated or rolled out in another place, it
should follow different implementation phasing, in order to deliberately work to
address the disparities in the school system, rather than reinforce the
discrimination as EQUIP did in its implementation. The schools within easy
access have been the relatively better performing schools in Shinyanga, even
before 2003. EQUIP also has worked more in those better schools. The District
Education Officers and the OXFAM Project Officers have more frequently visited
these better schools. EQUIP provided training to the teachers of these schools in
2004, though it intervened in the most remote schools only from 2006 and 2007.
The better schools got more TLMs and books and other inputs from EQUIP. The
schools in remote rural areas, those needed the most, got fewer of the EQUIP
interventions compared to the schools within easy reach. Many of these rural
schools have not received most of the other supportive inputs, other than the
training, and have remained the poorest performing schools even after EQUIP.

The evaluation team observed that most of the teachers in rural schools do not
regularly teach students let alone facilitate child-centred learning. This was the
case with six of the randomly selected rural schools that were visited by the
team. In one rural school (Puni PS) the science teacher has been to class only
twice in the whole of 2008. The Mentors last recording of any mentoring was
May 14, 2008. In another rural school, Masumnula PS, the Mentors last record
of a class visit was October 8, 2008, and the last visit by any OXFAM staff was in
February 2007. The situation was the same in most of the rural schools,
particularly the ones that are not within easy access. This clearly suggests that
EQUIPs approach with rural schools was not as effective as it was with urban
schools.

Better Staff Deployment:

In order to better implement the programme in future, there should be a different
structure and staff deployment strategy. While all training and routine activities
are done by the education officials, OXFAM staff should be mobilised to work
more with the Ward Education Coordinators, Head teachers and School
Committees to monitor outcomes, ensure micro-management at school level,
particularly to manage the expected change at classroom and school. Monthly
monitoring meetings of the education unit at OXFAM should discuss the school-
by-school situation and take additional step too provide effective feedback to
schools and education officials.

The evaluation found that OXFAM Project Officers were deployed to deliver
inputs and each of the six Project Officers are assigned with input and output
tasks; whereas they should have been deployed to intensively monitor outcomes,
and the change at school level.

41
Many of the training activities have happened only a few times in a given year
and this could have been easily managed through the Education Officers. The
team observed that OXFAM staff has rarely visited some of the schools in remote
villages. For example, the Puni PS, the worst school observed, had no record of
any visit by OXFAM in the Visitors book or the schools Logbook.

In future, the Project Officers could be deployed to visit a school for intensive
monitoring of outcomes at least every three months. This means an allocation of
10 schools to a Project Officer in a given month, totalling 60 schools in a month
by the six officers. The school visits could have been done in rotations to ensure
all Project Officers get the opportunity of seeing all schools for themselves to
learn from their own experiences. Each Project Officer should prepare a monthly
report based on their findings and interventions and share it with staff at a regular
monthly monitoring and feedback meeting to strengthen the interventions. This
would lead to more refined M&E indicators that improve the effectiveness and
efficiency of management of the project.

Bringing Parents More Into the Process:

A recent study, analysing all the school level variables that contribute to student
achievement by Hoy & Hoy (AERA 2007), concludes that the triangular
relationship between Parents-Teachers-Students is the most contributing factor
to learning achievement. Childrens learning accelerates when their parents, no
matter whether they are literate or illiterate, are motivated and push for schooling
and learning in their own space. When the teachers and the parents work
together, the childs commitment, aspiration and attitudes contribute to escalating
performance and behaviour. EQUIP interventions have not done much in this
domain. Although the school committees were trained, the parents were only
directly targeted in the initial community sensitisation and mobilisation at the start
of the project to promote the value of educating their children. If interventions
were introduced to constantly bring parents more into the process, the EQUIP
model could have demonstrated better outcomes.

Improve Classroom Settings:

The practice of child-centred pedagogy requires a different setting of classrooms
from the traditional teacher-centred approach witnessed in most classrooms in
Tanzania. This has never been properly addressed within EQUIPs interventions.

Traditional Furniture: Tanzanian classrooms are filled with regimented

type furniture that allows no freedom of movement to the learner. The
furniture is made to facilitate the traditional lecture approach to teaching.
These need to be gradually changed to learner-friendly, flexible furniture.
This is a much more serious concern for the lower grades, particularly for
KG, Class I and II. OXFAM needs to flag this to the School Management
Committees, Local Government Authorities and the Ministry of Education

42
 and Vocational Training (MoEVT) to motivate schools to utilise the
decapitation grants effectively to gradually procure pedagogy and learner
friendly furniture, that allows for participatory learning, especially for
Kindergarten, and Grades I & II.

Inequity in classrooms: The equity in classrooms is an important

concern in child centred learning. The team observation of rural schools
indicates that there are two serious concerns that EQUIP should have
addressed to ensure equity in classroom:

o Gender disparity: Although gender parity is high in terms of student

enrolment, gender disparities and inequities are evident in the
classrooms, especially in rural areas. It is necessary to point out that
although student-learning achievements have improved at grade 4 and
PSLE because of EQUIPs interventions, the gender disparity has
increased leaving the girls to fall further behind the boys in the same
classes. The evaluation team observed no gender disparity in the
demonstration classes at the municipal schools. However, it was
evident in the rural schools that girl children are not treated equally.
Often girls were segregated and when the classroom had insufficient
benches, it was the girls who sat on floor. When the team entered the
classroom, the girls were kneeling while the boys were standing. It is
true that this is the culture of the village that encourages this
behaviour. The Education for All Initiative aims to achieve equity and
equality, and these are the very practices that have deprived woman of
equal status. This needs to be debated and a course of action should
be agreed with the local authorities in a democratic manner. EQUIP
has not taken any steps in these direction to address such inequities,
although gender is an important cross cutting issue in the programme.

o Socio-economically Weaker Students: Traditional social practices

within the schools further weakened the classroom by making the slow
learners sit on the backbenches and those also happened to be the
ones who came from the lower socio-economic backgrounds. Except
in one school the team did not witness any remedial instruction for the
weaker students. To illustrate this point the team also randomly
selected six students from the back rows, six from the middle rows and
six from the front rows; from the grade six classes of the four EQUIP
schools in the purposive sample. There is almost perfect correlation
that in the rural schools the students who come from relatively better
homes sat in the front rows, and the children of the socio-economically
weaker homes occupied the back rows (See Figure 9 below). This
situation was not as visible in the urban schools, where child-centred
learning is better practiced, because all the children in schools such as
Mwenge PS were from socio-economically better homes. EQUIP
should promote a culture of remedial instruction for the weaker

43
 students to make the pedagogy work better for all the students. Simply
because the students do group work does not mean that every child
who is sitting in that group is being involved and is learning.

Figure: 10
The Socioeconomic Inequality In
Classroom Seating In Two Better
Performing Rural EQUIP Schools

[Figure Removed]

Special Intervention on Lower Primary Grades: The lower grades of

schools have not benefited that much from EQUIPs interventions. This is
because EQUIP concentrated more on Grade 5 -7 than on the lower cycle
of primary education where issues are much more serious. Teachers tend
to need more help in the lower grades. More TLMs such as concept
teaching structured learning aids, TLMs to facilitate the transition from the
childs mother tongue to Kiswahili, etc have never been addressed. The
teachers teaching in the lower grades clearly expressed that they did not
receive much from EQUIPs training.

Need Policy Advocacy To Tackle Adverse Factors: The quality of

education and the transformation to child-centred learning was adversely
affected by the following wider factors which can be only addressed
through policy changes at district, regional and national levels:
o Overall Shortages of Teachers: There is an obvious shortage of
teachers in rural schools, especially female teachers, and a relative
oversupply of teachers for the schools in convenient locations.
o Large Classes: The average class size in the schools that the team
visited were 72, and in several schools there were classes with 120
students. The shortage of classrooms has also contributed to the
unequal deployment of teachers in schools. For instance, Mwenge PS
has 25 teachers and only 16 classrooms; and 9 teachers always
remained free at a given school period in the timetable. These
teachers should be deployed in rural schools that are in severe need.
o Textbook Ratio: The pupil-textbook ratio in municipal schools was 1:4
and in one school it was 1:3. However, in some rural schools it was as
high as 1:6 and shortage of exercise books affected the students from
weaker soci-economic backgrounds more. The team observed cases
where group work was done in crowded classrooms and some boys
and girls could not share their books in any useful way.
o TLM at Lower Primary Grades: Learning material was very scarce
particularly in the lower grades of the primary cycle. As mentioned
above, EQUIP has not paid due attention to Grade 1 & 2 classes and
the Lower Primary Cycle.

44
 o Housing for Teachers: There is a serious shortage of teachers houses
in remote rural villages. In rural areas most of the teachers were
travelling from distant locations where there is no public transport for
travel.
o Shortage of Facilities: The shortage of furniture, water and latrines
were evident in rural schools. OXFAM has worked to partly address
this by building rainwater-harvesting tanks in 33 schools, and by
building or renovating shallow wells in 22 remote rural communities.
Although schools and communities have received training on water
treatment and maintaining the facilities, it is recommended that these
be regularly followed up so that the water remains fit for human
consumption and children learn good health practices.

Too Early to Exit:

The change that EQUIP is striving to achieve is not easy. Capacity building
requires time and continuous mentoring and monitoring, even beyond what
EQUIP has provided. Teachers certainly appreciate the intervention and the
impact the project has brought had on their teaching methods and their students
learning. However, it is too early for OXFAM/EC to stop supporting Shinyangas
teachers and students. It is strongly felt that EQUIP has initiated a positive
change and many schools have only just received the full course of EQUIPs
trainings. This evaluation recommends that with some adjustments, EQUIP
should continue to support the change for a few more years and ensure that it
takes root in schools and classrooms. OXFAMs involvement in day-to-day
management needs to be carefully handed over to the Local Government
Authorities, although OXFAM should continue to provide technical assistance on
capacity building, and support addressing the adverse factors that affect teacher
performance. In view of the National TDMS, it seems that EQUIP could even
consider further expansion of EQUIP to other Shinyanga districts and potentially
to other regions in Tanzania, rather than exit now.

45
 G. ASSESSMENT OF EQUIPS IN-SERVICE TRAINING MODEL
AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO QUALITY EDUCATION IN
TANZANIA
In-Service Training System:
Tanzania is working on an in-service training model to respond to fill the long- felt
need to provide professional support to up-grade teachers. OXFAM has been in
close consultations with the Basic Education Development Committee (BEDC)
and the Quality Education Taskforce of the MoEVT, as well as the Development
Partners Education Working Group and has been actively lobbying for the
experiences and learning from EQUIP to be included in national policies. The
National Teacher Development and Management Strategy (TDMS) of the
Primary Education Development Plan (PEDP) of the MoEVT wishes to establish
a mentoring system largely modelled on EQUIPs, that includes the provision of
regular in-service training to teachers; the revival of Teacher Resource Centres
(TRCs); provision of subject-based training to up-grade teachers; and initiatives
to develop teachers professionalism. The Director of Primary Education, the
Desk Officer in-charge of TDMS and the Inspectorate at the MOEVT are fully
aware of EQUIP and have also visited EQUIP schools, and EQUIP is seen by
them as a feasible model for replication.

Based on the TDMS, UNICEF is spearheading the development of an in-service

teacher training programme (INSET) and is also using EQUIP as an example of
best practice. Recently the team of UNICEF consultants working on in-service
teacher training also has visited four rural EQUIP schools to observe EQUIP in-
service training model. However, it is noted that the UNICEF consultants have
not selected a purposive sample for study. A random sample may not provide
them with the full scale of intervention because EQUIP was not reached in all
primary schools at the same time. Many of the schools only received the training
in year 2007 and have not experienced the full course of EQUIP that is needed to
bring out substantial change. It would have been better if they had selected
schools involved from the first phase of the projects interventions.

Figure 11 below presents the EQUIP in-service training model within the
framework of the existing government education structure. The black triangles
indicate the government education structure that was present before EQUIP. The
TRCs, though some were there prior to EQUIP, they were essentially non-
functional entities. EQUIP revived TRCs and built new ones where there were
no TRCs within a cluster of schools. The lighter triangles indicate the
components that EQUIP have added to fill up the gap (in the middle of this
diagram) to instil an interactive in-service training system for the professional
development of teachers.

[Figure Removed]

46
 EQUIP established a cadre of expert Trainers (TOT) to support in-service
training systems. The potential trainers were selected for training from the
Education Officials, Head teachers and teachers. They were further
screened as trainers after assessing their trainer performance. A pool of
170 trainers is now in place. These are crucial human resources needed
to run an in-service training system;
All Head teachers and teachers received several types of trainings as
stated in Table 2 and generated a cycle of training activities happening
over the five year period;
A pool of school-based Mentors was established and trained. They too
were selected from the currently serving teachers of the same schools and
trained and deployed at schools. Mentoring is an added responsibility for
teachers aimed to assist and support their fellow teachers. This introduced
a low cost school-based in-service system that can be sustained;
A Cluster Based Subject Facilitators (32, 15 in Urban and 17 in Rural) to
provide time-to-time academic support to the primary teachers on difficult
topics in the curriculum was established. This was much needed, as there
were many changes in the introduced curriculum. It was also to assist
teachers who have limited subject knowledge, particularly in subjects such
as Math, English and Science.
It revived the Teacher Resource Centres (TRC) and linked all activities to
centre on the TRC; making the TRC the heart of the in-service system.
A Teachers Network for the teachers to meet and share their experiences
was established. This is voluntary teachers circle and from amongst the
teachers they have selected one as Chair of the Circle, and they operate
at their own convenience to serve the fellow teachers.

The EQUIP In-service Model is a viable, feasible and sustainable teacher In-
service Training System in Shinyanga. It is also a successful illustration of how
professional development could be delivered to all primary school teachers in
Tanzania. It is practical and has stimulated the professionalism in teachers, Head
teachers and even educational administrators. TRCs are much in use by the
teachers as they are located in the centre of a school cluster. The Model has
filled a long felt gap in Shinyanga, and also in Tanzania. Policy makers and
educators should learn to recognise the effectiveness, efficiency and the viability
of this low-cost INSET Model, that can demonstrate results even in schools that
suffer from overcrowding, a lack of teachers, inflexible furniture, limited learning
materials, and a lack of basic utilities such as water, electricity and toilets.

Recommendations for Improvements of EQUIP In-Service Training

Model

We believe that the In-service Training Model can be further improved (as
illustrated in Figure 12) to ensure even greater quality and professionalism.
These additions were discussed in several meetings with trainers, Head
teachers, teachers, SEN and Education sector Officials, and were also presented

47
at the draft presentation meetings in Shinyanga and Dar es Salaam. The
proposed changes will also create an improved possible career path for primary
teachers, which is a dimension that is much needed to provide greater career
incentives to teachers.

The model needs to link with new micro-level planning and management
activities to address some of the shortcomings of EQUIPs interventions. This
will also shift the ownership of the model to the school level and will generates a
change process at the school and the ward level. Training alone cannot bring
about the changes that are sought. Furthermore, ownership of the change
process at the grassroots level will ensure greater sustainability and results.

Up-grading TRC and Placing TRCs Above the Schools:

TRC is the logical hub of in-service activities for all schools within a school
cluster. The Head teachers and teachers are directly served by the TRC.
Therefore, TRC has to be positioned above the level of a primary school as the
apex of the cluster level institutions. The Ward Education Coordinator also could
be affiliated with the TRC to increase its credibility. Currently, a teacher from the
nearest school is given the responsibility to serve as TRC Coordinator and this
temporary arrangement has helped the TRC to function under EQUIP.

However, the TRC need to be seen as a mini-Teacher Training Unit and logically
it should be placed under the guidance of the nearest Teachers Training College
(TTC). It is noted that all regions in Tanzania do not have a TTC.

Head of TRC:
Ideally, a Head teacher with qualifications equivalent to a TTC trainer should
head a TRC, and these TRC Heads should have a promotion path to become a
TTC Instructor. This will also help the TTC to have qualified trainers with primary
school experience. The current TRC Coordinators, usually a teacher who is
deployed from the nearest school, could instead function as the second officer of
the TRC to assist in the growing training functions. This person could be
responsible for assisting the TRC Head to develop training programmes, to
prepare training materials, and to assist in the management of training. However,
full job descriptions for both the TRC Head and the TRC Coordinator should be
developed.

The TRC management committee should be comprised only of professionals.

The current practice of having School Committee Chairperson as the Head of the
TRC Management Committee should be stopped to avoid possible politicisation
of TRCs. It would be advisable for a TTC trainer to be instead the Chairperson of
the Management Committee.

TTC And Primary Teacher Training:

Most of the Trainers of the TTC do not have primary school teaching experience
and EQUIPs training have had some weaknesses because of this. It is important

48
that MoEVTs TDMS examines this further and establishes a way of bringing in
the right type of trainers to primary school teacher training programmes. Qualified
teachers or Head teachers who have served in primary schools should have a
career path of promotion to become trainers. This will support the governments
effort to bring quality improvement in primary education. TRCs are good
institutions that also can be a central mechanism to find the right kind of trainers
for the primary teacher training programmes of TTCs.

TTC and Training Curriculum:

The national primary teacher-training curriculum needs to change to truly
encompass Child Centred Learning and also the mentoring of teachers. Rather
than the provision of in-service training to new teachers to orient them to child
centred pedagogy and mentoring, all TTC trainers should be trained on these
aspects, as well as on the changes in the school curriculum to ensure that all
new teachers entering the system are adequately trained and practice this
approach from the beginning of their training period. OXFAM could take a lead in
this to provide technical assistance to TTCs to ensure that the changes in
teaching practices towards Child Centred Learning take place and that the new
curriculum is correctly implemented.

Mentors Network:
Although Mentors have received fifteen days of training on mentoring, in addition
to the five-days teachers training, they would need further training, and
opportunity to share their experiences and learn from other school-based
Mentors. Such a network is needed to keep the Mentors stimulated and actively
engaged in their jobs. This needs to be facilitated within the EQUIP in-service
system. Mentors should be given authority by appointment and should also
report to the respective Head teacher and the Ward Education Coordinator.
Mentors should be given further opportunities to advance their professional
mentoring skills. Cluster mentor networks should be placed under TRCs in the
framework.

Subject Facilitators:
Similarly, the Subject Facilitators would require further up-grading and they
should be led by subject specialist of a higher level, at least by a Secondary
School teacher. A primary school maths facilitator can be inspired and guided by
a secondary school maths teacher. A primary school English teacher will gain
also with guidance from a secondary school English teacher. This will create a
system where professional development has to come from and within the
system. Subject-Based Resource Pools could be introduced and be affiliated to
the TRCs. The subject-pool can be coordinated and deployed by the TRC Head
to provide further professional support. This component needs to be added to the
EQUIP in-service system.

49
Head teachers Training and Micro Management of Schools:
EQUIPs Head teacher training has not paid as great a dividend as it could within
the training system. Head teachers should be the most important catalysts of
change. Head teachers have to believe in the child-centred approach and make
a deliberate effort to facilitate the process of learning within every class in their
school. The Head teacher is key to motivating his/her fellow teachers as well as
the parents. They need continuous professional support and guidance and TRC
could provide a forum for them to up-grade their skills and enhance their
professionalism. Specialised training on school management, supervision,
monitoring of teacher and student performance of child-centred teaching and
learning, school development planning, and community involvement, etc. should
be offered. This should then be constantly monitored by the school Monitoring
and Evaluation Unit headed by the Ward Education Coordinator, as mentioned in
the recommendations section.

The Ward Education Coordinator:

A Micro Level Planning Unit of the Ward should be placed under the
responsibilities of the Ward Education Coordinator and she/he should liaise with
the school-level Micro Management Units and the District level Macro-planning
Units. The Ward Education Coordinator could also link with the TRCs to ensure
the effective management of Mentors and Head teachers.

Micro and Macro Level M&E Units:

The weaker elements of the EQUIP model was the lack of a micro-level-change
management unit at school and ward or cluster. Therefore the Ward Education
Coordinators should be made responsible for coordinating and supervising the
school-level Micro Management M&E Units.

In addition, at the District level there is a need to introduce a better M&E system
too, to coordinate and supervise all the school-level Micro Management Units.
This district level M&E task should be placed as one of the responsibilities of the
Education Officers, and should receive the support of the school inspectorate.

The District level monitoring committee should also ensure that all schools are
using the decapitation grants effectively and efficiently to bring school level
improvements. Incorporating these proposed improvements to the EQUIP Model,
will make the model more effective and propel this cycle of change.

[Figure Removed]

Proposed Improved Career-Path for Primary Teachers:

This refined EQUIP in-service training model also provides a long neglected
opportunity for the MOEVT to establish an improved career path for the primary
school teachers. The present system does not provide sufficient career

50
incentives to motivate teachers to perform better and to earn merits towards
promotions. Nationally, teacher motivation is low. A motivated teacher serving in
a remote area should be identified and rewarded over a teacher serving in an
urban school, due to the harsher conditions. Such incentives are seriously
lacking in the system.

With the introduction and institutionalisation of the in-service training system,

MOEVT and Local Government Authorities should establish a career path by
setting selection criteria for the Mentors, Subject Facilitators, Trainers, TRC
Coordinators and Heads of TRCs. To make it a low-cost and a sustainable
career path, Mentors and Subject Facilitators could be given a new letter of
appointment with several incremental salary steps above normal teachers, as
they hold additional responsibilities. Accordingly, their job descriptions should be
changed to incorporate their new roles. They should remain as teachers of
schools, though, within a recognised career ladder.

There would now be two possible career paths for these trained Mentors or
Subject Facilitators. Figure 13 illustrates the possible career ladder for the
primary teachers. The first is for them to become Trainers, or the second is to
become a Head Teacher. One option is for Trainers or Head teachers to become
TRC Coordinators, followed by TRC Heads, before promotion to a TTC
Instructor. However, the selection of TRC Coordinator and Head of TRC requires
unbiased selection criteria. The demonstrated ability, qualifications and
experience of these cadres should be set equivalent to the lowest grade of a TTC
Instructor. Their salary step and qualifications, therefore, should be linked with
the TTC system. This will gradually allow Trainers, TRC Coordinators and the
Heads of TRC to take up trainer positions in TTCs. This will also build up a pool
of TTC trainers who have the primary teaching backgrounds that will ensure that
future primary teachers are more competent in handling child centred pedagogy,
and can provide effective mentoring at schools, so that we can achieve expected
cultural change within schools.

The other potential option is for Head Teacher to be able to be promoted to Ward
Education Coordinator positions, and then to Education Officer positions.

It is important to match the in-service training career ladder with the existing
career ladder in the education sector in Tanzania. The illustration is only for
discussion and MOEVT should examine the feasibility of creating a career path
as an incentive for teachers who are motivated to improve the quality of the
teaching and learning in schools. This will further strengthen the efforts made by
EQUIP, as well as other similar interventions to put in place a viable and effective
In-service Training Systems.

Figure 13

[Figure Removed]

51
Establishing a System of Credit for Training:
With the introduction of an In-service Training System, nation-wide, it will be a
further incentive to teachers if a system of providing Credit for Training and
Credit for Earning Further Academic and Professional Qualifications is
established. This needs further thinking. There are education systems where
teachers are assessed and given credit for what they practice in school and
classroom. At a time that Tanzania is developing a TDMS and reviewing its
education policies through the PEDP framework, OXFAM and the advocacy
networks should bring this up for further discussion, to assess the feasibility of
establishing a credit system for training and earning further qualifications through
self initiatives. This will be an intrinsic motivation to teachers.
H. SUSTAINABILITY AND INSTITUTIONALISATION OF EQUIP

Sustainability
The sustainability of donor financed development work in developing countries
much depends on the respective governments or individual donors. In this case,
the sustainability of EQUIPs interventions and its in-service teacher training
model depends largely on its acceptance and credibility to serve Tanzania within
the framework of the Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP) and
more specifically its concurrence with the Teacher Development and
Management Strategy (TDMS) of MoEVT. However, given that a great deal of
education responsibilities have been devolved to the local authorities, the
sustainability of EQUIPs interventions rests a great deal on the Shinyanga
District Authorities.

In the above context, there are two important aspects to consider:

(a) How would EQUIP be sustained in Shinyanga?

(b) Would EQUIP be supported by the national policy and plans of
Tanzania?

Sustainability is a question that should be addressed right at the beginning of a

project. It largely depends how the project is strategised and implemented. This
highlights two important concerns:

(a) What degree of ownership of the project has been vested with the
government right at the beginning of the project?
(b) How well has the implementation been mainstreamed?

EQUIP fares well on all these four aspects and its sustainability seems is very
high both at district levels and national level. This bodes well for its future
sustainability and success.

52
Policy & Planning Level: As detailed previously, EQUIP is very much in line with
the Primary Education Development Programme (PEDP) and the Teacher
Development Management Strategy (TDMS) of Tanzania. In fact, EQUIP has
successfully promoted its approach amongst policy makers and development
partners. Several key officials from the relevant departments of the Ministry of
Education have visited EQUIP schools. UNICEF who is spearheading the
development of a national INSET strategy is exchanging EQUIP literature on
regular basis, and their researchers have also visited EQUIP schools. This
clearly indicates that OXFAM has doing the right things to ensure the replication
and sustainability of the project.

District Administration: OXFAM has signed a Memorandum of Understanding

(MoU) with the District Council regarding EQUIP and the Project Coordination
Committee (PCC) was set up with District Commissioner as the Chairperson.
Although PCC meetings have not been very regular, they have established a
very high degree of rapport and consultations with the key officials of the districts.
There is a very high degree of acceptance of EQUIP and OXFAM interventions in
the Shinyanga districts. This was repeatedly heard from high-level district
officials, including the District Commissioner who is also the Acting Regional
Commissioner at this moment. The team met with the Commissioner officially
and casually in several occasions. The administration has witnessed EQUIPs
interventions and has a high positive image of EQUIPs activities and its
successes.

Mainstreaming: EQUIP is implemented through the mainstream. All EQUIP

activities are planned and implemented through the Local Shinyanga
Government Authorities. There is a very high degree of ownership of EQUIP with
the Local Government Authorities. District Education Officers of both the
municipal and rural district councils are fully involved and their Education Officers
and Ward Education Officers implement the programmes. These officials too are
in all committees and share EQUIP experience with higher officials. There is very
high degree of involvement and also they have a positive image of EQUIP
activities. They also actively participated in this evaluation process. This is a
lesson whereby OXFAM has demonstrated that it is important to keep the
Government in the driving seat of implementing any project in order to sustain it.

Financing of EQUIP by the Local Government: The sustainability of EQUIPs

interventions and its in-service training model in the Shinyanga district is very
much assured. OXFAM has discussed and agreed on an exit strategy with Local
Government Authorities at PCC meetings. OXFAM had requested the district
administration to finance the key recurrent activities with TSH 82 million TSH
15 for the municipal programme and TSH 65million for the rural programme. This
has been agreed. Although there is no formal written communication from the
Local Government Authorities, the evaluation team was told by the District
Administrations that these amounts have been allocated in the 2008/9 local

53
budget to continue to fund recurrent activities of EQUIP. This may be a major
step toward institutionalisation of EQUIP and its in-service training in Shinyanga.
This again is a rare incident where a government has readily and willingly
accepted a donor project to be absorbed.

However, EQUIP still needs OXFAM/ECs continued support, particularly in

terms of technical support, to address its shortcomings and ensure its smooth
functioning until it takes root as an in-service training system geared to bring
participatory child-centred learning in all schools in the country.

District Commissioners Request: The District Commissioner and the Local

Government Authorities also requested the evaluation team to highlight the
importance of OXFAM/EC staying for another term, with limited support to ensure
adequate support is given to address the lower primary cycle issues to bring
about the proposed changes at school level and its proper institutionalisation.
This is particularly the case now that the Shinyanga Region will shortly also have
its first Teacher Training College (TTC). OXFAM/EC could provide further
support to the TTC in Shinyanga to establish an in-service support arm at the
TTC with linkages to its TRCs.

Institutionalisation and Exit Strategy

Jointly with the Local Government Authorities of Shinyanga OXFAM has
prepared an exit strategy. OXFAM wishes to handover the day-to-day
administration of EQUIP activities to the local government and to ensure that key
elements are institutionalised with the support of the national government.

OXFAM and Local Government Authorities are in mutual understanding of its exit
strategy. In our opinion, OXFAM needs to continue to support Shinyanga rural
and Municipal schools because many new teachers have not received the full
course of EQUIP due to high turnover. Although the government would run
these activities, OXFAM assistance should go to four important areas for further
development:

I. Technical Assistance to Support the Continued Implementation of the

EQUIP Model: The most important area where technical assistance is
needed is to improve the Lower Primary Cycle performance. Grades KG, I
and II are far below the level of satisfaction to be called child-centred.
There are a number of issues that were discussed previously in this report
and need to be addressed and a new package of training for these classes
must be developed and imparted. Moreover, if the Shinyanga region wishes
to expand the EQUIP model to other districts, OXFAM could extend
technical assistance to design, plan and monitor the programme effectively.
Thirdly, at the national level as INSET is established under the TDMS of
PEDP, OXFAM can extend its technical assistance to the MoEVT to
facilitate its implementation. Unless OXFAM wishes to become a

54
 contributor to the TDMS and support INSET and its implementation with
OXFAM funds, the best exit strategy for OXFAM is to directly work with the
MoEVT and Local Government Authorities as a technical support arm of
INSET. If OXFAM has the funds to finance INSET as a part of the PEDP,
Shinyanga being its most familiar region, OXFAM could continue to support
INSET expansion to other districts of Shinyanga. However, still OXFAM
must encourage the Local Government to use PEDP/ESDP funds for these
activities.

II. Develop An Effective M&E System: M&E had been the weaker area of
EQUIP. Yet OXFAM has the capacity to improve it and institutionalise it at
the school, ward and district levels. This needs to be focused on the
management of change and school improvement. This should be a user-
friendly simple system and the government should not be given the eM&E
system that could not serve the project.

III. Institutionalisation & Career-Path: Work with the Local Government as

well as with the National MoEVT to further develop and institutionalise the
In-service training system and develop a career-path for primary school
teachers. This needs the development of Job Descriptions for TRC Trainers,
TRC Coordinators, Subject Facilitators, and Mentors. These then need to be
institutionalised together with the right linkages to create a viable and
successful career-path. The career-path may not work out immediately, yet
in the longer run it needs to be established to provide career incentives for
motivated teachers.

MoEVT should not perceive an in-service training system only from the point
of view of improving their pedagogical skills to deliver better quality primary
education in schools. OXFAMs vision is to enhance the professional
development of teachers. This means not only up-grading their skills but
also ensuring the mobility of the teacher to higher levels of their careers.
This is a much more promising path of incentives for teachers than simple
cash incentives. Over 70% of the teachers who responded to the
questionnaire indicated they are taking self-initiatives for their professional
advancement. Of them 30% indicated that they are working towards higher
qualifications. This shows the high level of motivation in teachers to seek a
better career path, and in-service training should facilitate such teachers to
earn higher qualifications by introducing a Credit System for the training
they receive. For instance the team came across a Head teacher who has
received 70 days of training from EQUIP. Does she get any credit for the 70
days of learning? Could it be made better than issuing a certificate of
attendance? What possibilities are there to link in-service training with
larger initiatives such as the Initiative on Teacher Training in Sub-Saharan
Africa (TTISSA) for 2006-2015 or the Open University of Tanzania? Open
learning is the most popular mode of adult learning and teachers can be
motivated to benefit from Open Learning systems through self-learning

55
 materials. This is one area that OXFAM, jointly with MoEVT could further
stretch their technical services to provide lasting career incentives through
higher learning. This would naturally inspire them and to work towards a
career-path for primary teachers.

IV. Completion of TRCs: The Shinyanga Authorities, possibly with the support
of OXFAM, should consider building four more TRCs in the four clusters
where TRC are current not available to teachers. This will complete the
design and establish the model in full for all clusters.

56
 I. BEST PRACTICES OF EQUIP
The evaluation has witnessed a very rare incident of strong willingness on the
part of Local Government Authorities to fully absorb a small donor project and to
continue its activities. This will happen with EQUIP. It will happen because of
several best practices that the project has followed throughout in its
implementation. Further, EQUIP has several best practices that has contributed
to bringing about an impact on student learning. These practices would always
positively contribute to the professional development of the teacher and will bring
about a positive impact on student learning.

1. The sustainability of the project came easy because EQUIP was

implemented only through the Local Government Authorities. The
Regional Commissioner, the District Commissioner, the Municipal
Commissioner, the Director of Education, Education Officers and Ward
Education Officers were all fully involved in the process of implementation.
The evaluation team not only heard positive comments from them yet it
was to our surprise that the Education Officers could tell us in which
schools it has worked well, and where it is not working well. They had a
good understanding of the project and its activities. They felt that it is their
project. The ownership was well vested in them. The project management
kept these officers well abreast and had opened EQUIP/OXFAM office in
easy access for them.

2. Another best practice is the In-service Training System Model. It is fully

aligned with the national policy framework (PEDP) and it has been used
as a best practice example to guide the development of the new Teacher
Development Management Strategy (TDMS). The step-by-step evolution
of the projects implementation has well integrated the model within the
school system. The introduction of Mentors to the school system is
commendable. This again was possible because of the deliberate
placement of its ownership with the Local Authorities, and it enabled
OXFAM to institutionalise EQUIP. With a few adjustments, this INSET
model will be complete, and it is recommended that OXFAM/EC support
the completion of this.

3. Introducing child-centred learning to all schools of two district councils is

not an easy task. It is unrealistic to expect all schools to practice it with
success. EQUIP has brought about an important impact on the education
system by advocating for it, and practicing it successfully, at least in some
schools in one of the most educationally deprived regions of Tanzania.
This has made policy makers and educators in Tanzania to open their
eyes to a new approach and a brighter possible future for future. OXFAMs
job is not finished. EQUIP needs its continued limited support to help to
address the programmes weaknesses, while the district administration
should take over coordinating and implementing all the activities.

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Xxxxxxx END xxxxxxxX

58
J. ANNEXES

59
 Annex A: The Terms of Reference For the Final Evaluation of the EQUIP
Programme

TERMS OF REFERENCE
FINAL EVALUATION
FOR THE EQUIP - SHINYANGA EDUCATION PROGRAMME, TANZANIA

1.0 Background
Oxfam GB is in the process of preparing for the final evaluation of its education
programme in Shinyanga district known as the Education Quality Improvement through
Pedagogy (EQUIP). EQUIP is a five-year project (2003-08) that aspires to improve the
quality of primary education in Shinyanga district by enhancing professional standards of
teachers through training/mentoring/networking, materials provision and development,
and incentives in order to improve the quality of their work within the classroom. EQUIP
worked within government education structures and in close partnership with local
governments such as the Shinyanga Municipal Council and Shinyanga District Council
to raise the quality of education in the project area through improved pedagogy,
continuous teacher professional support and development.
The project has 4 key elements. The first aspect capacity building, which aims to
improve pedagogy or standards of teaching and learning in primary classrooms by
developing district-based capacity for in-service training and mentoring, integration and
empowerment, that integrates opportunities and incentives that empower teachers to
pursue own professional development and addresses the needs to motivate and
empower teachers to take responsibility for their own professional development.
Networking and partnership that involves developing mechanisms for teachers to
share experiences about their work and to develop partnerships and shared visions on
the quality of education, and monitoring, evaluation and advocacy that involves
collecting information through research and monitoring, evaluation and discussion
among stakeholders and using improved local planning and implementation to advocate
for policy review. In addition, HIV/AIDS and gender are cross cutting themes that are
mainstreamed within the project.

Oxfam aims at using programme experiences to strategically inform and influence policy
and national level decision-makers on the provision of quality schooling at district and
national levels. At the national level Oxfam GB is developing an Education Policy and
Advocacy Programme that will use field experiences, evidence and lessons from
Shinyanga District to inform national education policy reviews, practice, plans and
budget that will promote quality and relevant education at the national, regional and
district level.

Oxfam also works in collaboration with partners, such as TEN/MET, the Ministry of
Education and Culture and civil society organisations working in the area of education

60
improvements, as well as liaising with many other key actors within the education sector.
Lessons learned will be useful to government, international donors, and Oxfam global.
EQUIP is coming to an end of its funding phase in December 2008 and hence the need
for a final evaluation. The aim of the evaluation is to determine the results/impact
generated through the program, the challenges that faced, strengths and weaknesses as
well as the lessons learned. The evaluation report will be used to inform the
government, Oxfam, Development Partners (DPs), CSOs and other stakeholders.

61
2.0 Purpose of the Final Evaluation
The main purpose of the final evaluation is to assess the extent to which EQUIP has
achieved the project objectives and the impact it has generated. The final evaluation
also aims at identifying best practices from the EQUIP programme that can be replicated
and or used for influencing policy and decision makers to adopt the EQUIP model.
Specifically, the evaluation results will be used to inform major national level processes
currently going on such as the development of the national teacher in-service training
(INSET) strategy and related operational plan within the framework of the national
Teacher Development Management Strategy (TDMS) that are mainly supported by
UNICEF and UNESCO. The study findings will also inform as well as compare notes
with the baseline study on the Quality of Teaching and Learning Processes in Tanzanian
Primary Schools funded by UNICEF.

Furthermore, the final evaluation will assess the draft EQUIP model and make
recommendations on how to improve it. Finally, the final evaluation is also expected to
critically examine the EQUIP exit strategy and actions taken so far in operationalising it
and recommend ways in which the programme could be handed over smoothly to the
local government authorities of Shinyanga region with a view towards sustaining the
EQUIP successes.

2.1 Specific Objectives

Based on the projects proposal, log frame, relevant documents and field/site
observations and meetings, the consultants will be expected to:
Management and delivery
2.1.1 Assess the extent to which the objectives of the project have been achieved.
2.1.2 Assess the operational and management efficiency and effectiveness of the
implementation of the project towards achieving the project goal and objectives
(including an appraisal of the methods and approaches used);
2.1.3 Assess the appropriateness of the systems, structures and team capacities in
place to deliver against the project objectives
2.1.4 Assess the impact of the investment in monitoring, evaluation and learning
systems and capacities for the project
2.1.5 Assess the extent to which the project has generated observable or recorded
impact in terms of making a difference in the lives of the target groups
(community, teachers, pupils and local authority), specifically with regard to
quality education. This can include the proposed assessment of changes
identified in 2.1.8

Results and impact

2.1.6 Assess the extent to which the project has generated observable or recorded
impact in terms of making a difference in the lives of the target groups
(community, teachers, pupils and local authority), specifically with regard to
quality education.
2.1.7 Identify and document any unintended impacts that the project might have had at
community, district, regional and national levels;
2.1.8 Assess the relevance of the project, in terms of contributing to the goal of the
project of improving standards of teaching and learning and problems identified
and the needs of the target group;

62
2.1.9 Assess the extent to which the project has managed to change the practices,
attitudes, perceptions, values and beliefs of the community, teachers, pupils,
local government authorities towards quality education in the district;
2.1.10 Assess the learner outcomes achieved by the project
2.1.11 Assess the general contribution that this project has made to improve quality in
the Tanzanian education system;
2.1.12 Assess the implications that the EQUIP model has for national policy and
planning processes. For example, in terms of its potential for integration into the
national INSET strategy and operational plan based on the national TDMS, led
by the INSET Steering Committee, supported by UNICEF.
2.1.13 Clearly identify and document lessons learnt and best practices from the project
that can feed into future work in this area;

Model and sustainability

2.1.14 Review the partnership model for the project and Oxfams delivery in terms of
partnership support and exit strategy
2.1.15 Assess the nature/extent of ownership and integration as well as sustainability of
the programme interventions in the district/councils education system.
2.1.16 Review the draft EQUIP Model and propose improvements (if required). In
addition, assess what elements of the model that can easily be replicated
elsewhere and review what opportunities exist within the education sector to
capitalise on.
2.1.17 Assess the institutional arrangements for the implementation of EQUIP and
suggest ways in which they could have been improved or they could be improved
in future for programs like this one;
2.1.18 Recommend realistic and practical ways and means of expanding the EQUIP
project beyond the current geographical area;
2.1.19 Assess how EQUIP is or could complement or contribute to other initiatives -
national and global. Examples of such initiatives could include: The TESSA
programme (Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa) of the UK Open
University, UNESCO's TTISSA - Teacher Training Initiative for Sub-Saharan
Africa - including Tanzania in its focus up to 2009 and ADEA Working Group on
the Teaching Profession in Africa. Do these initiatives have something important
to offer to a project like EQUIP or how could EQUIPs learning and achievements
influence them?

3.0 Specific Tasks/Scope of Work

The consultants, in consultation with and active participation of key stakeholders, will
focus on the following specific tasks:
3.1 At Project/Community Level
3.1.1 Assess critically the extent to which EQUIP has achieved the issues outlined
above in section 2.1;
3.1.2 Assess the effect and impact that EQUIP has had on all stakeholders with
regards to the four EQUIP components of the project model. Can the model be
enhanced/improved?
3.1.3 Assess the extent to which EQUIP has made a difference and driving causes of
change (both positive and negative) to the education system at district level,
including an assessment of:
- What factors really influenced change (positive and negative)?
- What were the obstacles/challenges to change?

63
 - What were the key stakeholders strategic roles as a catalyst to
change?
- Did the project make a difference (e.g. in terms of quality of
education, or are teachers and children better off)?
- Who were the real beneficiaries of the project, who did not
participate or participated partially and why?

3.1.4 Assess the teachers and their attitudes and perceptions about their work and
professional support and development (attitude towards work and perception of
own pedagogy, use of learner-centred pedagogy, their perception on the roles of
different district staff, inspectors, mentors and Ward Education Supervisors
focusing on the degree they feel they have been supported. Cross check on their
attitude towards their future needs).
3.1.5 Assess the extent to which the district education system did integrate
opportunities and incentives from the project that empowered teachers to actively
pursue their own professional development in relation to the work of the project.
3.1.6 Assess whether the projects external environment (as reflected in the risks,
assumptions and conditions specified) remains appropriate for replication or not
and provide recommendations.

3.2 At Oxfam GB Level

Review the project structure and the impact this had on the project. Including a review of
the following:
3.2.1 Was the project well structured to meet the project goal, objectives and demands
of the project?
3.2.2 Could the project have been structured differently to enhance impact?
3.2.3 How more sustainable could the current project structure and role of project staff
be? How can it be improved in future interventions of this kind?
3.2.4 Review the extent to which the programme documented the learning and best
practices.
3.2.5 Assess the extent and effectiveness of mechanisms that were put in place to
facilitate documentation and learning. How else could learning and
documentation in a programme like this be enhanced?
3.2.6 Assess the effectiveness of monitoring and evaluating systems of the
programme.
3.2.7 Review actual expenditure against planned expenditure and assess whether
spending did reflect project priorities.
3.2.8 Review the uptake/operationalisation of any previous evaluation
recommendations and mid term review recommendations.

3.3 On Advocacy
This section aims at assessing the extent to which EQUIP contributed to its fourth
component particularly on advocacy. In this regard:
3.3.1 Critically assess the achievements, linkages and extent to which EQUIP
contributed towards policy change.
- What was achieved or not achieved?
- What was the project aiming to change at policy level and what did it
contribute in influencing and at what levels?
- What elements in this component could be improved or could be done
differently in future?

64
 - How were the linkages in advocacy work between the local (field) and
national level in terms of informing and influencing changes in policy
and practice?
3.3.2 Assess the Shinyanga Education Network, its effectiveness, challenges and
opportunities it faced and achievements. Assess whether effective advocacy both
at the district and national level can be sustained beyond the duration of the
project.

3.4 On Partnership
Assess the project partnerships and their impact on the project, specifically :
3.4.1 Who the project partners were.
3.4.2 The quality of the relationship between the programme and the project partners
3.4.3 The challenges faced by the programme with regards to partnerships.

3.5 On Governance
Assess the project activities on improving school governance and their impact on the
project. Specifically assess the following:
3.5.1 Assess from gender perspective, the work done to School Management
Committees, Head Teachers, Ward Education Supervisors, District Education
Officials and ascertain the impact generated or not generated.
3.5.2 Assess budget-tracking activities undertaken by the programme and determine
their impacts.

65
3.6 On Cross Cutting Issues
Assess the mainstreaming of crosscutting issues into programme activities as well as
their impact on the project. Specifically assess the following:
3.6.1 Assess the extent to which the project aims to mainstream gender and HIV and
AIDS issues were achieved.
3.6.2 Assess the effectiveness of activities undertaken to enhance work in this area
(succeeded or did not succeed).

4.0 Findings and Recommendations

Provide findings and recommendations on the best practices that can be adopted and
replicated and the way forward

5.0 Methodology
Whilst the choice of methods and tools to be used during this consultancy can be
determined by the consultants, but it is expected that a participatory approach will be
used to gather data and information and maximise learning, with a participatory
feedback of information to stakeholders facilitating conclusions with them. The
consultants will gather information, therefore, through methods such as reviewing
baseline data, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions to mention just a
few.

The consultants will be required to go through all of the qualitative and quantitative
information collected by the programme in order to really be informed and make
assessment specifically on the programme outcomes over the past 3 years. Such
information could be for example, the data collected by the field team using classroom
observation tools, etc. This information will need to be critically analysed and used to
inform the assessment. In addition, the consultants will find out that the programme has
an updated log frame, which outlines the way to analyse such relevant information
against all of the set indicators.

The consultants will hold a series of meetings/interviews with key stakeholders and a
number of different actors, from the target group, such as teachers, school children,
community members, local government officials, project partners (District Education
Office), as well as partners such as SEN, TEN/MET, Development Partners and the
Ministry of Education and Culture, to collect relevant information and provide feedback.

The consultants will also meet (personally, email or through telephone-conferences) with
and interview EQUIP project staff (as well as other Oxfam staff who have been involved
in one way or another with the project at Dar, Regional and Oxford levels) to determine
the level of project achievements and impact in relation to programme approaches and
implementation methods and propose best means of replication, as well as with other
relevant Oxfam stakeholders (country, regional and global level).

The consultants will also visit the project field sites and observe work being carried out,
interview and ask beneficiary questions. Sampling and choice of sample will have to take
into considerations of good representation of oldest, next oldest and newest school-
clusters in the project (from 2003 2008).

A participatory debriefing meeting at the field level will be held with all Oxfam project
staff and partners to present findings of the review

66
A feedback meeting/workshop for education sector stakeholders will be held at district
and national level to present findings and recommendations and get more inputs to
strengthen the study report before final submission.

67
6.0 Reporting
During the assignment, the consultants will report directly to the Programme
Coordinator-Education at the country/national level. At the field level, they will report at
the Shinyanga Senior Programme Manager.

7.0 Expected Outputs

The main outputs from the final evaluation will be as follows:
7.1 A draft and a final evaluation report that outlines all issues raised under sections 2.1
through to 3.6 as well as the following:
Unexpected outcomes (both positive and negative);
Highlight where progress hasnt been made, reasons behind failure and
possible strategy that was or could have been taken to cope with the
unexpected.
Evidence from primary stakeholders should corroborate information on
achievement and impact;
The report should provide supporting conclusions that are clearly stated.
Recommendations affirming current practice or addressing weaknesses should
be clearly stated with supporting analysis.
7.2 Facilitation of a debriefing meeting by the consultants to present the findings of the
evaluation to Oxfam staff and stakeholders will be based on a pre-distributed draft
report. The presentation will outline the key findings, learning and recommendations
for the future. Recommendations should clearly outline whom they are for and how
they can be achieved (e.g. tools/methods).
7.3 The draft report should be submitted within one week of the completion of the review
and the final report should be submitted no later than 2 weeks after the national
stakeholder-debriefing meeting. The final report should be no longer than 30 pages,
excluding supporting annexes. The final report should be submitted in 3 hard copies
and in electronic form.

8.0 Time Frame

It is envisaged that the consultants will work for 25 person days, from 22nd September
2008 to 31st October 2008. A timetable and work plan at field level will be developed
jointly with staff and other stakeholders. A tentative work plan is presented below.

Tasks No. of Days Dates (tentative)

Literature review 5 22-26/09/2008
Field work 10 29/9/08-10/10/08
National level interviews and review 3 13-15/10/08
Submission of first draft 1710/2008
District and national stakeholders feedback 2 21 and 23
workshops /10/2008
Incorporating comments/inputs made 5 27-31/10/2008
during stakeholder meeting/workshop and
final report writing and submission
Total 25 person days

9.0 Supports to the Consultants

Oxfam GB at the national and in the field will provide the logistical support needed to
facilitate the successful completion of the evaluation. The consultants will be provided

68
with full board accommodation and transport to and from the schools and other locations
involved in the final evaluation.

Terms and mode of payment will be as per Oxfam consultancy contract terms, which will
be discussed and contract signed prior to the commencement of the assignment.

10.0 Skills and capabilities required

The following skills and capabilities will be required from the consultants:
Excellent knowledge of quality education programming essential
Experience of carrying out programme reviews and evaluations including
collection and analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data essential
Excellent facilitation and communication skills of study findings to large group
desirable
Good English including professional report-writing
Good gender and HIV and AIDS knowledge and mainstreaming skills
Ability to mentor an Oxfam employee during the assignment
Knowledge of Tanzanian education system desirable
Swahili skills desirable

69
 Annex B: Documents Reviewed by the Evaluation Team

NATIONAL REFERENCES

1. Ministry of Education and Culture (1995), Education and training policy.

MOEC
2. Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, (2007), Basic Education
Statistics in Tanzania. (National data), MOEVT
3. Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (2007) Basic Education
Statistics in Tanzania. (Regional data), MOEVT
4. Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, (2008), Education Sector
Development Programme (ESDP); The Teacher Development and
Management Strategy (TDMS2008-2013). Basic Education Development
Committee (Draft)
5. Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, (2007), Education and
Training Sector Development Programme; Education sector Review
(2007), AIDE-MEMOIRE.

EQUIP RELATED REFERENCES

1. AID IT (2006) EQUIP Project Monitoring and Evaluation Information system

2. Shinyanga (2007) e M&E Review Report
3. European Commission, Co-financing with European Development NGOs; Action
in Development Countries (PVD)- Grant application form.
4. Oxfam GB; Information for the Children Investment Fund Foundation;
demonstrating the success of Oxfam EQUIP programme
5. Revised EQUIP Log-frame
6. Introduction to Oxfam programme to improve the quality of education for girls and
boys across Shinyanga region of Tanzania
7. Curriculum and action Research
8. Promoting Quality of Education for All Tanzanian Children
9. Notes to support documentation for the Oxfam EQUIP project in Shinyanga
Tanzania.
10. Education Quality Improvement through Pedagogy (EQUIP); Project proposal
11. Oxfam GB Tanzania, The Year in Review (May 2006 -May 2007)
12. Oxfam GB Tanzania, National Change Strategy for Tanzania (2007-20017); Our
scale-up plan to reduce extreme poverty.
13. Oxfam, Education Quality Improvement through Pedagogy (EQUIP), Project
Proposal for the Districts of Shinyanga Municipal & Shinyanga Rural, March
2003, Dar es Salaam
14. Study of the Development of Incentive and Networking Schemes to EQUIP
Education Project-Shinyanga, prepared by CASEC Arusha, Tanzania, October
2004
15. Oxfam, Education Quality Improvement through Pedagogy (EQUIP), Mid-term
Review Report, by Joseph Mmbando & Faustin Mukyanuzi, Oct 2007, Dar es
Salaam
16. Oxfam, Education Quality Improvement through Pedagogy (EQUIP) Project,
Monitoring Mission Report, Shinyanga 4-7 February 2007.

70
17. Oxfam, Education Quality Improvement through Pedagogy (EQUIP), Interim
Narrative Report, 1 January 31 December 2007.
18. Oxfam, Education Quality Improvement through Pedagogy (EQUIP), Interim
Narrative Report, January 2006 February 2007.
19. Strategic Evaluation of the Oxfam GB Education Programme: Tanzania Report,
by Helen Poulsen and Prof J. Galabawa, August 2005
20. A Report on the Visit to Education Quality Improvement through Pedagogy
(EQUIP), by Dr. Mark James, February 2005
21. Oxfam, Education Quality Improvement through Pedagogy (EQUIP), Final
Baseline Survey Report, by Dr. John Aluko Orodho, March 2005
22. United Republic of Tanzania, Education & Training Sector Development
Programme (ESDP), Education Sector Review, November 2007, Dar Es Salaam.
23. Oxfam, Education Quality Improvement through Pedagogy (EQUIP), Original Log
frame
24. Oxfam, Education Quality Improvement through Pedagogy (EQUIP), Revised
Log frame
25. United Republic of Tanzania, Education & Training Sector Development
Programme, Basic Education Sub-Sector Implementation Status 2006/2007,
MoEVT, Dar es Salaam
26. United Republic of Tanzania, Education & Training Sector Development
Programme (ESDP), Primary Education Development Programme II (2007-
2011), by Basic Education Development Committee (BEDC), November 2006
27. Shinyanga eM&E System Review Report, July 2007
28. EQUIP Project Monitoring & Evaluation Information System, AID-IT, Australia
29. European Commission, Co-financing with European Development NGOs,
Actions in Developing Countries (PVD), Grant Application Form, Budget Line 21-
02-03 (ex B7-6000)

71
 Annex C: The List Of Persons Who Participated in the Evaluation
TEACHERS

[Annex Removed]

72
 Annex D: Questionnaire/Interview Format for Teachers

1. Name of school Name of Teacher: (Optional)

Subjects taught by you?
Year of Appointment? Gender
2. Since when are you teaching in this school?

3. Did you receive any EQUIP training? YES NO

If yes, What were the trainings received?
A- Foundation Training YES NO
B- Curriculum Analysis YES NO
C- Developing teaching skills -TLM YES NO
D- Subject Specific Training YES NO
4. Was the training useful? YES NO
4-A. If yes, In what ways was it useful?
5. Did you receive any hands-on training to master YES NO
certain skills by doing?
5-A. If yes, What were those? O Did a Practice Lesson
O Prepared a Lesson Plan
O Made some equipments
O Prepared teaching aids
O Other (Specify)
6. Was there any thing that could have made the
training more useful to your classroom practice?

7. Did you apply the learning received in your YES NO

classroom practice of teaching?
7-A. If Yes, What did you do differently than before
the EQUIP trainings?
8. What are the best lessons that you learnt from
EQUIP training?

9. Were there any Mentors assigned to you? YES NO

10. Have they visited your classroom? YES NO
11. Did a mentor worked with you in your class? YES NO
12. What was the frequency of the mentoring visits? A. Weekly
B. Monthly
C. Quarterly
D. Never
E. Other (Specify)
13. Has the Headteacher supervises your teaching? YES NO
14. What did the Headteachers do differently after
Headteacher received EQUIP training?

15. How many students are there in your most

crowded class?

73
16. How many parents of those students do you
personally know?
17. Have you had any meetings with some of the YES NO
parents of those students?
17-A. If yes, what was the purpose and what did you
discuss with them?

18. How often do you discuss classroom problems a. Daily

with the other teachers of your school? b. Very Frequently
c. Occasionally
d. Never
e. Other (Specify)
19. How often do the other teachers share their a. Daily
classroom problems with you? b. Very Frequently
c. Occasionally
d. Never
e. Other (Specify)
20. Did you do such discussions before EQUIP 1. Did Before EQUIP as well
trainings or doing it more because of EQUIP 2. Doing More After EQUIP
training? Trainings
21. Have you had any opportunity to share such
problems with teachers of another school or Yes No
schools?
21-A. If yes, When and where?
22. Is there any forum or place where you Yes No
occasionally meet to share such classroom issues
and concerns?
23. Did EQUIP facilitate any of such meetings? Yes No

24. Are you attached to a TRC?

25. How many times have you been to the TRC this 1. Over Five Times
year? 2. 3 - 5 times
3. 1- 2 Times
4. Never
26. Were you invited to participate in training at Yes No
TRC?
27. When was your last visit to TRC?
28. What was the purpose of your visit?
29. How many times have you visited TRC on your a) Over Five Times
own just to meet teachers or to make use of b) 3 - 5 times
materials? c) 1- 2 Times
d) Never

30 Have you taken any self-initiatives to develop Yes No

your professional competence?
30-A If yes, what did you do? 1. Obtained higher
qualifications
2. Attended
Seminars/Forums
3. Analysed the

74
 Curriculum
4. Met with other teachers
5. Other (Specify).

31. As a teacher what are the two things that you got 1.
as best practices from EQUIP?
2.
32. If you want to REQUEST OXFAM to do TWO 1.
THINGS to make EQUIP a better programme what
would you suggest? 2.
33. Have you had any HIV/AIDS training/education? Yes No
34. If Yes, Who provided the training/education?
35. How did you use this knowledge to deal with any a. Did some personal
HIV/AIDS infected and affected in your school counseling
community? b. Advised the patient to
seek further treatment
c. Discussed at School
Management Committee
d. Established HIV/AIDS
Club at school
e. Other(Specify).
36. Have you had any gender training? Yes No
37. How have you managed gender equity in your
classes?

38. Have you received any training on Action Yes No

Research
39. If Yes: Did you carryout any Action Research Yes No
Study in your class or school?
40 If Yes, What was it?
Date: --------

75
 Annex E: Up-dated Reporting on Revised Log Frame Indicators
Components Broad indicators October 2008 Assessments
By Final Evaluation Team
Primary enrolment rates for
Rural schools to be increased
from 57% (2003) to 95% and for
Municipal schools from 78%
(2003) to 100%
Examination results
OVERALL
OBJECTIVE
Secondary enrolment rates 9.1%
(2003) to 45% by 2008
Drop-out and repetition rates 8%
in 2003 to 3% in 2008
The relationship and quality of
Specific interaction between the teachers
Objectives and children in classrooms
corresponds with a child-centred
pedagogical approach (as
opposed to traditional 'chalk and
talk').
Current Rate is 100% for both
Rural and Municipal (Source
BEST, MOEVT 2007)
77.5% for Girls in the Best Six
EQUIP Schools
Increased from 10% in 2003 to
75% in 2007 in Municipal schools,
and 4% in 2003 to 59% in 2007 in
Shinyanga Rural Schools.
Average for Shinyanga Districts
increased from 06% to 53%
Secondary transition rates
increased from 4.5% (2003) to
37.8% (2008) for rural schools and
10% (2003) to 65.4% (2008) for
Municipal schools
The dropout rates calculated on
cohort analysis of the six better
performing EQUIP schools
indicates 8.8% and Grade
Repetition 16.3%.
The rates for all 11 EQUIP
Schools was: Dropout 12% and
Repeater Rate 14.9% on the basis
of Cohort Analysis.
The rates given in baseline are not
based on any cohort analysis.
Child centred approach is yet to
take root in many schools.
However, the better performing six
schools demonstrated a high
degree of child centred learning.
In most of the rural school those
selected on random sampling did
not show any satisfactory level of
change. However, these schools
also received training in 2006 or
2007 and never had the full
course of EQUIP inputs.
Further the classroom
arrangements were not supportive
of Child Centre Learning. Mostly
were with traditional lecture
oriented seating. This was more
76
Components Broad indicators October 2008 Assessments
By Final Evaluation Team
needed in LK, Grade 1 & II.
Adequate availability, condition TLM is more available in Municipal
and resourcing of teaching and schools and school in easy
learning materials. access. Many of the rural school
did not have sufficient TLM and
EQUIP also has not provided
materials to the distant rural
schools.
The textbook ratio was closer to
1:4 in Municipal schools and
better performing rural schools.
However, the schools in remote
rural area had 1:6 ratios.

The Lower-Primary Cycle suffered

the most as there had been no
focus on these grades, although
these were the most desired
grade to use more structured
TLM.

Lower teacher attrition and The schools in easy access were

truancy rates. having over supply of teachers,
particularly female teachers and
rural schools were short of
teachers and particularly short of
female teachers.

The teacher supply has increased

in general due to PEDP
interventions.

The teacher deployment in rural

schools indicated that teacher
truancy is very high. In some
schools teachers have not gone to
a class for months.

Teacher deployment suffers very

much due to a lack of teachers
housing in the rural areas.
Wider range of stakeholders Local Government Authorities, the
investing in supporting the School Committees and Village
improved pedagogy of primary Government and religious
school education. institutions and some NGOS have
contributed to the further
development of the practice of
child-centered pedagogy.

77
Components Broad indicators October 2008 Assessments
By Final Evaluation Team
However, this is witnessed more
in the better performing schools.
Children and parents report This is seen more in the better
improved satisfaction with the performing schools.
quality of education and
increased perception of its value
Expected 80% of teachers in the project In the better performing schools
Result --1 area (1440 teachers out of the 92% of the teachers indicated
1800) use more than one that they use Child-centred
learner-centred teaching method pedagogy (source: questionnaire).
and appropriate assessment However, in the rural schools the
method in the classroom by practice was not witnessed.
2008
60% of teachers in the project Teachers in better performing
area develop and use a range of school do use locally made TLM.
teaching and learning materials The teachers in the rural areas
using locally available materials also showed some sign of using
to enhance active learning by TLM. However, the quality of the
2008. material was unsatisfactory.
80% of teachers in the project This is not observed even in the
integrate HIV/AIDS and gender better schools. However, 50% of
into their lessons appropriately teachers in the four better
by 2008. performing schools where the
questionnaire was administered
indicated that they do counselling
where necessary. There were no
school clubs.
80% of teachers in the project This change is much observed in
area exclude corporal many schools. However, in some
punishment and use a range of of the schools in the remote areas
alternative disciplinary measures this has not changed. Even in
by 2008. some Municipal schools corporal
punishment is still in practice.
% Children interviewed who The children in the better schools
report improved satisfaction with indicated that the better
the way in which they are taught satisfaction of teaching. However,
in the rural schools students
indicated that teacher do not
regularly come to class.
Expected District Councils have budgeted District Council Senior Officials
Result -- 2 plans to support training, indicated that 2008/09 budget has
mentoring and networking allocated TSH 15million for the
activities by 2008. Municipal schools and TSH67
millions for the rural schools.
Improved quality (as judged by Teacher of all schools indicated
teachers) of the in-service the training was satisfactory.
training provision provided by However, teacher also indicated
the programme. possible improvements to training

78
Components Broad indicators October 2008 Assessments
By Final Evaluation Team
(see report)
District-based network of The Mentors and Trainers are
trainers and mentors established present. Yet a clear role has not
with clear roles and been specified or documented.
responsibilities and support.
40% increase in the number of 74% of the teachers in the four
teachers seeking further better performing schools
development out-side the project indicated that they have taken
by 2008. self-initiatives for their professional
development.
80% of teachers regularly use Only 59% of the teachers of the
teachers resource centre and better performing four schools
other resources like school indicated that they use TRC
libraries, newsletters and other facilities more regularly.
networking opportunities.
Children are actively It was observed that those who
participating in development sat for Grade 7 exam are using
opportunities provided TRC facilities for independent
learning. The childrens practice of
borrowing books was minimal.
Children reporting increased This was indicated by students in
confidence as a result of the six better performing schools.
changes in the way that they are
taught
Children are aware of and able Not seen in the rural schools.
to demand their rights in terms There was a school where the
of quality education science teacher has only taught
two lessons in 10 months. Also in
another school, the social
sciences teacher had not taken
any lesson in a whole year.
It was reported that in some
schools the children have
demanded more teachers as there
is a shortage of teachers.
Expected Teachers are effectively This training and seminars have
Result -- 3 supported through follow-up taken place on regular basis.
visits, mentoring and seminars However, mentoring is in place in
the better performing schools
though is less practiced in some of
the rural schools.
Established district- based 56% of the teachers in the better
network attend forums and performing four schools indicated
participate in discussions with that they do participate in forums
civil society and discussions.
Increased involvement of SEN seems to be active, yet is
stakeholders and civil society in dependent on OXFAM. Budget
decision making about provision tracking is one activity that SEN

79
Components Broad indicators October 2008 Assessments
By Final Evaluation Team
of quality education has done.
District plans and implements a
system to support teachers and
pupils on HIV/AIDS related
issues by 2008
Expected The district and schools
Two newsletters have been
Result -- 4 established newsletters and published in 2008, with 5000
magazines and other networking
copies of each circulated to all
opportunities teachers and Shinyanga
education officials.
The subject based teachers
network seems to be functioning,
yet is at very early stage and
requires support.
Advocacy and communication SEN and TEN/MET are active
strategy partners in this. Also OXFAM
jointly with other development
partners advocate good
governance and best practices for
primary education. However, the
expected inputs of M&E analysis
to be fed to the advocacy
movements have never
happened.
Learning and advocacy There have been very limited
activities in this domain. Some
schools as well as some trainers
indicated that they have
participated in exchange sessions
outside the districts.
In some schools the better
informed teachers were
convincing the fellow teachers to
join the subject based networks.
Gender and HIV mainstreaming Gender awareness is high in the
Municipal schools and the
teachers in the better performing
four schools indicated that they
practice gender equity in schools
and classrooms. However, in the
rural areas the discrimination was
evident. The girls were not
equally treated in classroom in
general, including seating, and in
participation.
HIV/AID related interventions were
not evident. However, the
teachers in the four best schools

80
Components Broad indicators October 2008 Assessments
By Final Evaluation Team
indicated that they have had more
HIV/AIDS training from the
Ministry of Health. There was no
special attention to HIV issues or
to assist affected students in any
school.

81
 Oxfam GB 2008

First published online by Oxfam GB in 2010.

This document is part of a collection of programme evaluations available from Oxfam GB in

accordance with its evaluation policy.

This document was originally written for internal accountability and learning purposes, rather
than for external publication. The information included was correct to the evaluators best
knowledge at the date the evaluation took place. The views expressed in this report are those
of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect Oxfams views.

The text may be used free of charge for the purposes of advocacy, campaigning, education,
and research, provided that the source is acknowledged in full. The copyright holder requests
that all such use be registered with them for impact assessment purposes. For copying in any
other circumstances, or for reuse in other publications, or for translation or adaptation,
permission must be secured and a fee may be charged. Email publish@oxfam.org.uk

For further information on the issues raised in this document email phd@oxfam.org.uk

Oxfam is a registered charity in England and Wales (no 202918) and Scotland (SC 039042).
Oxfam GB is a member of Oxfam International.

www.oxfam.org.uk